Twenty Warriors
by Herr Wozzeck
Summary: Twenty warriors are sectioned in groups of two to end a threat to the entire universe. However, is this threat really the massive apocalypse that it seems? MultiCrossover fic.
1. Prologue

Twenty Warriors

Prologue

_A great evil has penetrated the earth…_

_He walks among men, inconspicuous as can be…_

_He gathers warriors to fight each other so that two may win…_

_  
The strongest teams will eventually come out on top to battle this evil…_

_And this evil will show no mercy…_

_This is not just any battle…_

_It is a battle to the death…_

_A battle some will not survive…_

_A team battle…_

_Of the century… _


	2. Chapter 1: Dimensions

Hello, all! Herr Wozzeck here with another new fic. I know. Again.

This was inspired by SSJBowser's fic _Team Battle of the Century_. While it wasn't the greatest fic in the world, it certainly had an interesting premise, so you know where that leads. This is somewhat similar, except there are more main characters involved and I changed the linup a little. You'll see.

You know the rest, right?

Disclaimers? Here ya go:

None of the trademarks used here belong to me. Super Smash Brothers belongs to the guys at Nintendo and Hal, TMNT belongs to Peter Laird and another guy whose name I consistently forget, Punisher and X-Men both belong to Marvel comics, Gears of War belongs to the guys at Microsoft and Epic Games, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance belongs to Nintendo, Skies of Arcadia belongs to the guys at Sega and Overworks, and Riviera: The Promised Land belongs to the people at Atlus and Sting. All characters used from other trademarks that are not listed here will be disclaimed as the fiction progresses. Anybody you don't know belongs to me.

Phew. That was a long disclaimer. (H.W. exhales deeply)

In other news, I recently got a baroque violin bow as a super-early birthday gift. It's early, because I'm not going to be near them on the day of my birthday. You know the rest.

Anyways, here's the fic. Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 1: Dimensions

It had been a pretty normal day at the Smash Mansion. This was true, of course, considering that it had started pretty normally.

But somehow, things had fallen apart as quickly as they had started pretty normally.

Master Hand felt himself thinking on the subject of why he never moved that filing cabinet away in the first place. He knew that one day somebody would figure out what was inside of it, but he never figured it would come as soon as it had.

The mess had started because of a dare between four children. One of the children went in and rummaged through the filing cabinet to find a strange black sphere inside.

Once this was found, the darn idiot had to touch it. The touch would end up leading to disaster in the mansion.

Master Hand had been notified that something was awry by an alarm that was installed. He managed to evacuate most of the smashers; however, some were taking their time simply because they figured it was a false alarm.

In the end, that child and nine others had been sucked in by the black sphere. The other three children had been punished severely, and everybody else was moved somewhere until they could find where the old mansion had gone.

No matter what, though, the gloved hand had the feeling it would take a while.

Master Hand realized then that he should have told his fighters that the filing cabinet he mentioned had a dimensional portal that was in the shape of a black sphere. He should have told them that it would expand upon contact.

But he was scared of anybody being curious and randomly going up to it and touching it.

Unfortunately, his paranoia always worked against him.

And this time, he knew he would pay for sure.

He looked down the list of the people who had gone missing during the enlargement of the black sphere just to get his mind off of the predicament at hand.

The list had ten names, all written there in alphabetical order.

The names on the list were Bowser, Captain Falcon, Donkey Kong, Fox McCloud, Ganondorf, Link, Mario, Ness, Samus Aran, and Solid Snake. These people had not been found when the expanding ball had been contained and subsequently imploded on itself to leave a barren earth where the mansion once stood. Where any of them went would have been anybody's guess.

Master Hand sighed and shook his wrist as he treaded the grounds on his two longest fingers.

He knew it would take a while to get it all back…

* * *

"I ain't doin' so good here!" 

"No kidding. You'll have ta do much better than that to defeat the two of us!"

"Oh yeah? Bring it on!"

"Gladly."

A clang of metal followed this short dialogue, followed by a few gunshots that would miss their targets.

The targets in question were a pair of humanoid turtles leaping and prancing about the rooftops of New York City with two men following them. The two men in question would never normally team up in certain circumstances, but in this case they realized they had to team up if they were to go up against the strange opponents they were facing.

The circumstances were quite strange, actually. One of them had been out drinking on a binge when he had come across a group of people, only to find two of them were not normal. Unfortunately, by this time he had already attacked them, and so they were ready to attack the mutant back.

This mutant was formally known as Logan or his codename, Wolverine. He wore a white skin-tight shirt with black jeans, which tended to blend well with his dark wolf-shaped hair that adorned his scalp. His mutation allowed him to generate a three-pronged claw from his hand, and undoubtedly this gave him much power in combat. He also sported a healing factor that would do its work to heal wounds that had found their ways onto Logan's skin. Most of the time they were handled pretty quickly, but in this case the mutant had been getting too many wounds for his healing factor to handle all at once in the situation he was in.

The two turtles went by the names of Raphael and Leonardo, respectively. They looked very similar except for the fact that the shades of green on their skin were slightly different (Raphael having the darker skin of the two) and that they wore different colored facemasks. They also sported different weapons; Leonardo was hacking away at Wolverine with a pair of katanas while Raphael was using a pair of sais to do his work for him.

After this fight had gone on for a few minutes, a random man had shown up and begun firing at the turtles. After this, the mutant and the strange man joined forces.

This strange man went by the name of Frank Castle, otherwise known amongst criminal organizations as the Punisher. The vigilante wore a crew cut on the top of his head along with a black trench coat and a black shirt with a white skull imprinted on it. He wielded two guns in either hand, one being a semi-automatic rifle and the other a Magnum. The constant firing was doing nothing to subdue the two turtles, however, and even worse for the two fighting the turtles it certainly made the fight more attractive to police forces as time went on.

Thankfully, though, the police would be the last thing that the fighters would have to worry about. After all, the humanoid turtles were making a good display of leaping on the roofs of New York City and meandering their way from one dark alley to another so that by the time the police would arrive, the group would already have moved their fight twenty or so blocks away from the police.

After several minutes of fighting and taunting, the turtles managed to arrive at a hiding spot underneath a fire escape where they could assess the situation.

"Phew," said Leonardo as the ends of his facemask fell on his shoulders. "Who would have thought that preventing theft would lead to this?"

"Beats me," said Raphael. "I wonder how he got there in the first place."

"For a moment there it looked like he wanted peace with us," said Leonardo. "But no, you had to charge right into the fight at hand!"

"Hey!" said Raphael. "Don't blame me for jumping in! He's the one who started it!"

"I don't care who started it!" spat Leonardo. "You continued it!"

Right then, some gunshots sounded followed by the rain of lead going around them.

"Damn it," said Raphael.

_Why did we have to patrol this area tonight?_ This thought ran through Leonardo's mind as he leapt from the fire escape.

More gunshots were heard as the Punisher appeared on the rooftop above them and rained bullets on the two turtles as if there was no tomorrow. The two mutant turtles ran around as fast as they could to lose the bullets, and they did not dare to jump knowing it would take willpower to do so.

A roar was suddenly heard, and then Wolverine jumped down onto the situation.

Unfortunately, however, he jumped in at the wrong time, as evidenced by the fact that Raphael and especially Leonardo were too fast for him to hit, and in fact they were landing more cuts on the feral as time went by.

Eventually, though, Raphael was taking the brunt of the bullet aiming. This gave Leonardo an opportunity to hide under the hood of a garbage dump. He had sworn to himself never to enter one to hide again due to the smell, but circumstances had gotten the better of him.

The turtle sat under the hood of the garbage dump listening to the sounds of the fight rage on.

And then, suddenly, Leonardo realized he should not be hiding there anyways.

The turtle was supposed to be the fearless leader who would help his brothers through everything. He was supposed to be the one who would walk right into the face of the enemy and take the brunt of the damage.

Hell, he figured Raphael should not be the one doing all that.

With a renewed resolve, Leonardo moved to get out when suddenly he slipped and fell amidst the dirtiness of the trash in the dump.

And then, a very bright glow resounded in the dump.

Leonardo failed to notice the end of the fighting noises as he stared at the light emanating within the compact space. He hardly even noticed the sound of the dump's lid being lifted.

And then, after a minute of watching, a high-pitched wailing emanated out at such a loud dynamic Leonardo swore his sense of hearing would have been destroyed listening to it for more than a minute.

The wailing died away, but before the mutant turtle could register anything else he felt a great pain in his gut as the world around him churned into a black void.

* * *

Marcus wiped the sweat off his brow as he surveyed the ruins of what was once a trading post. 

_Darn locusts went haywire on this place… _thought the squadron leader with a tinge of irony wandering through his head.

It had all started a while ago. Marcus Fenix and his squadron had been defending a small trading post when locusts attacked and managed to separate the group. The commander had managed to fight his way through, but apparently most of his friends were not in very good shapes. Coal Train had limped over to Marcus after the fight with a pretty bad wound on his side and had managed to get to the medical supplies, but he ended up exhausting them as well. Marcus had also noticed he had run out of ammo after the fight ended, and apparently his comrades had as well. Their armor had also been penetrated pretty badly by the locusts, and this was not good for any future fights.

In other words, they would be eternally outmanned, outgunned, and they had nothing to save themselves with if they were injured.

Marcus sighed as he felt the sweat trickle down his brow once more as the tension of the whole event seeped its way into his being.

_Darn armor is so heavy…_ thought the commander as he walked around to sit on a piece of rubble. _Why do things have to be so tense at a time like this…?_

As he sat, though, the piece of rubble he sat on crumbled under his weight, which then set a remnant of a pillar which had been leaning on the said piece of rubble falling on Marcus' lap.

The remnant had a strange black glow in it that apparently he had not noticed before when scanning the site. There was a bizarre pool of sound surrounding him at this moment, the likes of which he had never really heard before.

The leader scratched the bandana that adorned his head as he stared in wonder at what he saw.

"This is certainly strange…" said Marcus aloud.

His hand moved to touch the strange black glow, but he hesitated when something in the depths of his mind began to tell him that many things would unfold which would change the course of his life for the worst.

Eventually, however, he knew that he already was prepared for the worst, given the fact that he had to go to jail for four years for deserting the army once.

After such an event, he felt he could take anything.

The gloved hand floated down to the black mass.

* * *

A fairly burly man walked in the woods in search of something. 

"Damn it," he said. "Why did Calill have to run off like that? I can't believe that I'm walking through these woods right now just because she left me!"

The berserker continued walking.

Largo had been very unfortunate over the course of the past few days. He was on a job guarding a beautiful woman named Calill when one day she disappeared for no reason. The berserker was intent on finding the woman to resume his job, but for some reason she had to be really good at evading people.

The sweat on the berserker's mostly bare chest shimmered in the sunlight as he trudged the woods. It had been several days since he had been walking in these woods, and for some reason it was really hot in there. It was only the beginning of spring, when it should have been much cooler, but he found no comfort in the breezes.

The berserker perched his axe on his shoulder, the long handle brushing up against his lilac-colored hair as Largo's shoulders rocked. That axe had been some of the problem. Even though Largo's muscles would normally be enough to carry any burden, it was different when hauling it over several miles of nothing in particular.

Overall, the frustration would somehow get the better of Largo sometime. He only wished that his endless days of journeying would come to an end soon.

At this moment, he tripped over a root of a tree, and while he managed to keep himself from falling, a loud thunk that came from an axe bearing on a tree notified the berserker that the trees were about to make his life difficult again.

However, when he went to remove his axe, he suddenly noticed something black on the ground. It was a black ball of what looked to be energy lying on the roots. A light bouncing of this sphere meant that it had fallen on the tree.

Now, Largo was certainly one person capable of curiosity, so naturally he would move to touch the ball out of the feeling. However, something in the back of his mind was telling him not to.

The berserker touched it anyway.

Suddenly, a high pitched wailing sounded in the air, followed almost half a minute later by a very bright light that overpowered the area.

When the light dissipated, the berserker and his axe had disappeared.

* * *

Panting sounds were heard in accompaniment with footsteps as two men walked down a hallway. 

"Sheesh…" said the first. "How many more monsters do we have to fight before we reach the end of this place?"

This first wore an oceanic jacket with black pants, a shirt, and a strange little lens on his eye that looked very similar to an eye patch. The red sash around his neck contrasted very well with all of this, and his hazelnut-colored hair and eyes went with the scar on his cheek.

"Seriously," said the second. "I wonder why there aren't any women around here…"

This second man wore what one would think to be a crimson trench coat with a belt in the middle. He also had dark tights and an orange kerchief that hung from a string strung around his neck. On his nose rested a fine pince-nez that he used more to make him look intelligent than anything.

"Seriously, Gilder," said the first man. "Are women the only things you can think about?"

"In an environment where I am depraved of such, I believe so," said the second.

The first let out a heavy sigh.

"This is not the time to be thinking about women," said the first man. "We either move or we stand here waiting for the world to end."

"Vyse, it helps clear my mind," said Gilder. "If we're stuck here in the middle of an area we do not know, what do you expect me to think about?"

"Why wouldn't you think about piloting an airship then?" asked Vyse.

Gilder simply shook his head in response as he walked ahead a little.

Vyse also shook his head, and then turned to follow when he caught sight of a treasure chest.

"Hey, Gilder, perhaps some treasure will help you think of something else?" asked the younger Blue Rogue as a smile crept on his face.

"Sure," said Gilder as he slowed to a stop and turned around.

"Great!" said Vyse cheerfully. The two of them walked over to the chest, Vyse being the one to move at a faster rate.

When they finally got to the treasure chest, Vyse pulled up on the lid and opened the chest.

What was in the chest was something strange that neither of the air pirates could identify. It was a mystical black object in the shape of a sphere which seemed to shimmer in whatever dim lighting existed.

"Hm?" asked Gilder. "This doesn't look like any treasure I've ever seen before."

"Same here," said Vyse as he lifted the black sphere out of the chest. "I wonder what it is…"

"Perhaps it has a moonfish inside?" asked Gilder.

Vyse shook his head before laughing a little.

"Gilder, that's really very silly when you think about it," said Vyse. "No, I don't think it's a moonfish. Perhaps Fina could identify it for us?"

"Perhaps," said Gilder. "To do that, though, we better get moving."

"Agreed," said Vyse. "Let's go before –"

Vyse was unable to finish his sentence, for suddenly a high-pitched wailing was heard.

* * *

"Jeez! How hard is it to defeat this thing?" 

"I don't know! It just got summoned! How am I supposed to know how hard it is?"

"Relax, Ein! If we think we can do it, we can do it!"

"Fia's right! We have to carry on for our sake as well as Cierra's!"

"Yeah! That's the spirit!"

A slash at flesh was heard, shortly followed by a footfall.

A group of four people was busy fighting one of the strongest entities that had ever been summoned in Riviera since the time of Ragnarok. This entity was Seth-Ra. This was an incredibly powerful sprite with two huge wings. Besides the fact that one of the wings was skeletal in appearance, the tribal-looking colors on the sprite made him seem pretty intimidating.

The four people in question were a former Grim Angel and his three sprite companions. The angel, Ein, had chestnut hair along with dark eyes and a travel suit that seemed worthy of a warrior. His companions Fia, Lina, and Serene were all female sprites whose coloring seemed centered around one color; Fia had lime-colored features and clothing, Lina had orange-colored versions of similar things, and Serene was an indigo version of that. The only things that really differed between them were their clothing styles, their hair, and their weapons; Fia used a rapier, Lina was content with a bow, and Serene was pretty skilled with the scythe.

Serene attempted to slash at Seth-Ra, however, she missed. Thankfully, she managed to dodge Seth-Ra's next attack as Fia went in for an attack that hit. With this, Seth-Ra attempted to slash at Fia with his very large lance, and this time he was met with success as Fia backed back with a large gash imprinted on her shoulder.

"Argh…" she said. "Lina! The elixir!"

"On it!" shouted Lina as she hurled a vial in Fia's direction. Fia caught the vial and administered the elixir to her wound as Lina strung an arrow and fired it at Seth-Ra.

By then, Seth-Ra had begun to weaken, and Ein noticed this by the fact that his attacks seemed sloppier by the minute.

"Ein!" shouted Serene. "I think we might have a chance at defeating him now!"

Serene rushed over to the scene, a blow with a scythe connecting as Seth-Ra reeled.

With Einherjar at his side, Ein prepared to deliver a blow that would defeat the evil spirit.

Lina fired another arrow, after which Fia deftly went in with her rapier.

"Now!" shouted Fia.

By this time, Ein was ready to deal his blow.

"Divine Judgment!" he shouted.

With this, the angel launched himself at Seth-Ra, cutting the spirit with nine blows, each stronger than the one before it. Eventually, these blows wore down the evil sprite quite a bit. Black blood oozed freely, with all of it eventually converging into a strange sphere.

"You have defeated me," said Seth-Ra finally. "I was not strong enough…"

Seth-Ra vanished after saying this.

"It's over," said Ein. "It's finally over…"

Just then, a rumbling occurred with the ground beneath them.

"What in!?" shouted Serene.

"Ein!" shouted Fia. "The place is collapsing! We have to get out of here!"

"I know!" shouted Ein. "This way!"

Ein led the way to where they figured the exit was. However, when they arrived, the portal by which they had gotten there was not there.

"What is this?" shouted Ein. "Where's the portal?"

"I don't know!" shouted Serene. "What do you think is—?"

Nothing more was said, however, for soon the ruins crumbled around Ein and Fia. Thankfully, the two of them disappeared as the rubble rushed to meet them and failed.

Serene and Lina were taken in a different portal, for the black sphere had expanded when the ruins had begun to shake.

* * *

"Master?" 

"Yes, sir?"

"The black spheres have all been touched. Should we proceed to the next stage?"

"Yes. Remember that the green spheres should not arrive until our warriors wake up."

"Yes, sir!"

"Perfect. This is all going according to plan. Now, to see if they will do what they're told…"


	3. Chapter 2: Coming Together

This is not a dead fic. It's just taken a while to write up.

Anyways, you'll start to see the lineup of characters form in this chapter. Note that only four teams are formed in this chapter out of ten that are supposed to be. I'll get to the other six in the next chapter and possible the fourth chapter if I don't get to everybody. You'll have to assume they banded together, though, since I'm not rewriting this chapter under different circumstances six times. You know where that leads.

I'm starting to have less to say in my A/N's. I wonder why...

Apart from that, nothing new is found in here, so no disclaimers.

And here's the chapter. Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 2: Coming Together

Ganondorf felt himself regain consciousness, the black aftermath of whatever had happened lingering in his eyesight.

As he felt himself regain consciousness, he wondered what the black mass that had made its way through the dorm hall was. It was very strange, since Mario and Bowser both disappeared when they touched the sphere, and then Ganondorf felt himself go out cold when he touched the sphere.

However, there was one thing the Gerudo king was sure of about the sphere; whatever it was, it was probably not a good thing to be touching it.

Ganondorf opened his eyes to find himself facing upwards in a forest of leaves that shone of emeralds and vibrant blossoms in the trees. He heard the rush of a brook next to him, and he also noticed the sunlight creeping its way through the leaves. The air smelled very freshly of the most sensual perfumes, and the cool breeze seemed perfect for the environment.

Ganondorf kept still in this position, partly because he was waiting to regain his energies to stand, and partly because he indulged in the details of the forest. He had never known what it was like to be in a forest, given the fact that he had spent his entire life in a desert. He had heard of what it was like through storybook depictions and the volume of Thoreau that was in the Smash library, but he had never truly experienced a forest, so he took it all in.

As he was ready to stand, his face turned to the left so he could roll over on his side.

He found an unconscious man to his left. He had a white skin-tight shirt on his upper body which revealed quite a volume of muscles, along with black pants and hair to match up.

Ganondorf was puzzled by the sight. He was wondering how the man had gotten next to Ganondorf.

To make sure nothing happened, Ganondorf looked down on himself and sighed in relief when he found his tribal clothing still on him.

The Gerudo king decided to nudge the man to see if he was still unconscious so that he could see what he could do.

When the king nudged the man lightly, nothing happened. When he nudged harder, nothing else happened.

The man was unconscious. Ganondorf decided it was up to him to revive the mysterious man.

Thus, Ganondorf took the man's surprisingly heavy body in his own muscular frame and went to find where he had heard the brook rushing.

* * *

"Fox! Fox! Wake up!" 

This violently shook Fox from a sound sleep. Or had it been unconsciousness?

Whichever one it had been, Fox McCloud was unable to tell. Since that strange black ball had grown to a ridiculous size and swallowed everything in its path, the young fox had been feeling and seeing nothing for who knew how long.

It was strange, actually. The fox had the strangest feeling that when he woke up he would have to face something the likes of which he had never faced before. True, the fox had saved the Lyatt System numerous times, but he felt as if he would be facing something completely different when he woke up.

Eventually, though, the grogginess in his eyes that seemed to be subconsciously keeping his eyelids shut because of the strange feeling he was having was beginning to lose its hold, so Fox managed to open his eyes to greet two rather small slits of light into his sight.

However, his eyes closed rather quickly, and the next attempt proved to be useless as the slits got wider but his eyes closed again.

Fox waited while hearing Samus' expectant yet tense breaths.

Finally, Fox was able to open his eyes completely to see a blonde woman wearing a blue suit.

"S… Samus…?" said Fox. "W… Where…"

"It disappeared," said the female figure above him. "I don't know where it went. It vanished into thin air while I was in the hold of the black sphere. You should probably get a little rest. You sound like you just walked out of a cage battle."

Fox wanted to snort at the last bit of humor, but he knew he had to save his energy, so he simply nodded and closed his eyes.

A few minutes passed where nothing was said between the two of them.

Finally, Fox opened his eyes again to see Samus sitting next to him.

"What happened?" he asked the female bounty hunter.

Samus was taken a little by surprise at this. Fox did not blame her at all; that comment had come from nowhere anyways.

However, she regained her composure and answered anyways.

"I haven't a single bloody idea," said Samus. "I also don't know where the others are."

"Others?" asked Fox, lifting his head a little. As he lifted his head, he couldn't help but notice hearing his flight uniform rub up against what sounded like grains of sand.

"Yeah," said Samus. "Eight others were pulled in with us. I can't find them anywhere. I was looking for them when I came across you, and I decided it was not right to leave you to die while searching for others in the area."

"How would I die?" asked an intrigued Fox. If Samus had found the fox and left him there, he reasoned he would have been fine.

"We're in the middle of a bloody desert, Fox," said Samus. "I haven't the slightest idea of how it all happened."

"What?" shouted Fox.

The shock of what had just been related to him set him bolting into a sitting position. What greeted his eyes surprised the fox beyond anything that could have happened.

His eyes beheld a vast sea of golden hills and suspended particles tinted in the same fashion. Fox looked around the area, and all he saw in front of him was the same sea of dunes and maybe the occasional wind sending particles flying from the crests of the frozen waves that stood in the area. Fox backed away in a crab walk and in a strange mixture of shock and fear.

"Fox!" shouted Samus as she noticed the humanoid mammal do a backwards crab walk. "Stop!"

It was too late, though, for Fox felt one of his hands fall where sand should have been. After that, he felt himself slip into a body of water.

_This is going to be a long day…_ thought the fox as he frantically got to the surface of whatever body of water there was. When he broke the surface, he inhaled sharply, both in shock and in need of air.

Samus ran right next to the body of water which had Fox in its grasp.

"So I landed near an oasis?" asked Fox.

"Yes," said Samus. "Thank the lord it was here, right?"

"Indeed," said Fox bitterly as he brought a hand out of the water.

Samus took a hold of this hand and pulled Fox out of the body of water. The fox's wet fur stuck to him as he felt himself be exposed to the air.

"So you have any idea what this desert might be?" asked Fox.

"No," said Samus.

"So we wait for a sign…" said Fox.

"Basically," said Samus.

Fox shook his head in disapproval.

It really was going to be a long day after all.

* * *

The soft patting of frail fists pounding into muscular flesh was amplified thousands of times in a small area between two buildings and a fence. 

"Lemme go!" yelled a little orange-haired girl as she pounded away at the abdomen of the very strong man who was holding her upside down (quite unintentionally on his part). "If you did anything to any of my friends, you're gonna die!"

"From the looks of what you are doing, I do not think it to be very possible at all," said the large amethyst-haired man as he held the girl in place. "Who would you think you are?"

"You dare to ask who Lina is?" yelled the little girl. "If I ever got my hands on my bow, I would shoot you out off of the nearest cliff!"

The large man sighed and endured this rather humiliating display.

Largo had not understood the circumstances that the girl he was holding had been in when they had landed. All he had done to the girl was to heal her when he found her unconscious, and then she made a fit about where her friends were. Largo eventually told the girl who referred to herself as Lina that he had not the slightest idea where they were. The girl went berserk at this and tried to hit the berserker where it would hurt under the pretext that he was hiding her friends somewhere.

And then, he had to endure this punching in the abdomen and kicking in the chin.

"Look, girl, I really do not know!" said Largo. "Now stop fighting and trust me!"

"Lina cannot trust you!" yelled the girl. "Lina won't trust you until you tell me where Lina's friends are!"

"By that logic, I don't think you can trust me," said Largo. "Just stop this display and let me talk!"

"No!" yelled Lina. "If you don't tell me where my friends are, you will die!"

"Stop it!" yelled Largo. He had finally had enough, and he shook the little girl vigorously enough to stop her fit and get her to achieve silence.

"I do not know where your friends are," said the berserker, a hint of anger getting into his voice. "You were right next to me when I woke up, so don't yell at me anymore. Okay?"

"Lina still doesn't believe you!" said Lina. "Lina still doesn't believe you!"

The girl's fist slammed straight into Largo's area, and the berserker howled in pain as he let go of the girl and doubled over.

Lina was not any better off. She landed on her hands and failed at an attempt to roll over, which thus landed her a bump on the head. This meant that Lina's head would hurt for a while and that her neck would be severely uncomfortable.

"Damn it," said Largo dangerously. "You're asking for it!"

Just as Largo stood up and pulled his axe from where it rested on his back, a voice was heard.

"Will you two stop fighting?"

Largo looked around, surprised that somebody was addressing both of them at a time such as the one they were in. Lina sat up from her trance and looked up as a luminous green orb descended upon the two of them.

* * *

"Oh dear. Are you working for the locusts as well?" 

"Damn it sir, I already told you I don't know what these 'locusts' are that you speak of!"

"Look, kid, I don't know if we can trust this orb or not."

"You probably should. After all, what I am about to relate to you is very important."

"Fine. I'm all ears."

Markus let out a sigh as he beheld one person and one object immediately in front of him.

It was all very strange. When he touched the glint of black, he heard this screeching, but before anybody else could get to him he was away. When he woke up, there was a person standing above him nudging Markus to wake up. It was strange, actually, because they were in a forest setting by a brook. Markus had wondered how the forest could have stayed intact through all the war in the first place.

The person was a young man of what looked to be no more than seventeen years of age who identified himself as Vyse. Since Markus did not have the slightest idea of what a Blue Rogue was, he figured Vyse was working with the locusts. The two of them had gotten into an argument on the premise that the young man had no idea as to what the locusts actually were.

This had gone on for quite a while, and right when Markus had his gun ready to shoot, a jade-colored orb of light descended from the heavens and told them to stop arguing and that destiny had chosen the two of them to work together.

"Okay." This disembodied voice emanated from the green orb "Destiny has chosen you to be together. You may ask yourselves why this is. Well, you see, there exists a set of ten very rare artifacts that if they fall into the wrong hands it could mean the end of the world."

"Why would that be?" asked Vyse curiously.

"When gathered together in the Temple of Wishes, these artifacts summon a very powerful goddess," said the green orb's disembodied voice. "This goddess is the goddess of wishes, and she is only around to grant the wish of the one who awakens her."

"But isn't that a good thing?" asked Markus. "I mean, wouldn't people wish for good things?"

"It is a terrible power if awakened by the wrong hands," said the orb. "There exists a group of eighteen individuals who wish to awaken the power of the goddess so they can do something."

"What exactly would they do?" asked Markus.

"I cannot answer that as I have no information to confirm anything," said the orb. "However, they have a reputation for doing great evil, so I fear the worst."

"Wait a minute," said Vyse. "I've had my share of undergoing deceit, and I know signs of it. How do you know about this group's wishes?"

"They already have an artifact," said the orb. "I also saw the leader give a speech about a time of awakening of an entity. I fear the worst for this world."

"So you're asking us to deal with this for you," said Vyse.

"Exactly," said the orb. "You are close to the Temple of Trees. In there lies one of these artifacts: it is a hardened piece of sap, extracted from the Tree of Life. Go now, and collect it, and guard it with your life."

"You want us to find other artifacts too?" asked Markus. "Because we can if it's a worthy cause."

"If you wish it so," said the orb. "However, you must be very quick in finding the other artifacts; the group will stop at nothing to claim the articles."

"You can count on us!" said Vyse.

"Alright," said the orb. "I thank you for taking on such a daunting task."

"You're welcome," said Markus.

"Before I leave, I must tell you this," said the orb. "Do not trust anybody you run into, for they may be part of the group. They have sent squadrons of two to collect the artifacts, and they will stop at nothing to end the lives of those who stand in their way."

"Right," said Vyse. "Thanks for the info!"

"You're welcome," said the orb. "And with that, I shall take my leave. I will check up on you every ten days to make sure you are all right."

The orb flew high into the heavens before finally disappearing as a dot.

"Okay, so I guess we're stuck together," said Vyse.

"Yes," said Markus. "Locust mercenary or no locust mercenary, we're in this together. However, if I ever find you trying to kill me, rest assured I will shoot your head off."

"Gotcha," said the air pirate as he gave the thumbs up sign to Markus.

"Wait, did the orb say which direction we had to take?" asked the squadron commander.

Vyse turned and looked at Marcus, a somewhat shocked expression showing up. This then turned into a small kind of anger.

"Damn it!" yelled the air pirate.

Finding the Temple of Trees would take a while…


	4. Chapter 3: Beginnings

Hello, everybody! 

Finally, I get to posting this again. I haven't been on writer's block, but I've just had way too many projects to do. I mean, seriously. 

It's a relief I can finally focus some attention on this, since I have a slew of new ideas. You'll see when we get there. 

Anyways, now to the chapter itself. 

Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 3: Beginnings

Two figures walked in the endless night, a beam of light emanating from the spot they were situated in.

The two figures in question were a pair of humanoid turtles. The first one was very large and had spikes on his back with a tuft of flame-colored hair on top of the array. The second one was a humanoid turtle wearing a red facemask with his weapons hanging on a cloth belt that wrapped around his waist.

The two had been visited by a green sphere fairly recently. It had told them about a group of eighteen people who were attempting to attain a very powerful artifact which could wake a great evil if it was abused too much. The thought of it still rang in the mind of the turtle of the facemask. The larger turtle was aware of this, and he decided to speak up.

"Say, Raph," said the larger one. "I take it this is all very hard on you?"

"Yes," said the smaller turtle. "I wish we had a better way of dealin' with these kinds of things. I mean, I wouldn't mind if we could just leave it alone, but if there are a lot of people after the same thing, what're we to do?"

"We press forward," said the larger turtle. "After all, we never know what can happen."

"So basically what you're saying is that if we don't press forward, we will never know what will happen," said the smaller turtle.

"Yep," said the larger one. "I take it you do not really think your actions out much."

"My older brother keeps yellin' at me whenever I run off on my own, so I guess it must be so," said the smaller one. "Do you get yelled at for your actions, Bowser?"

"No," responded the larger one. "Then again, I am a king of a nation which generally regards me as being at the top of the mountain."

The smaller turtle simply nodded. They continued on their way a while longer.

"Why the hell does it have to be so dark here?" asked the smaller turtle after a short while more of walking.

"I am not sure," replied the larger turtle. "The sphere told us it is still midday in here."

"Jesus," said the smaller turtle. "How does anybody see around here?"

"They must have great night vision," said the larger humanoid. "That should be all there is to it."

"Makes you wonder, eh?" asked the smaller turtle. "Why do we have to be stuck when our night vision is almost nothing?"

"That is a very good question, my friend," said the larger turtle.

"I never said I was your friend yet," said the smaller turtle. "If you do anything strange, I bust you up, remember?"

"Yes," said the larger turtle, a small sigh escaping his lips as he said the word. "It is not in my nature to do such a thing, though."

"Ya better be right," warned the smaller turtle.

The two trudged on in the eternal darkness, hoping for a glimmer of light to come to them.

* * *

"Hey! I'm trying to be of help here! You say you know where this place is because of your 'telepathy' or whatever, but we've been running in circles for the past half hour!" 

"Hey! Don't blame me! If these people know where this place we're looking for is, then they aren't going to tell us because they will think we're strange people!"

"That's not the point! They already think we're strange because I have wings!"

"Well, if they think that we're after their treasure, they'll say it."

"Of course they think we're after their treasure! I can tell!"

"No they can't! We haven't said anything yet, so how can they tell? Hm?"

"There is evil energy radiating from all of them after we've asked! There's no doubt!"

At this point in their argument, Serene felt like tearing her hair out.

She had somehow landed next to a telepathic boy named Ness. When they had begun to fight, a green sphere came out of nowhere and told them they would have to work together to stop an evil that could threaten the universe. However, they had landed in a town, and they had no luck in fishing information from any of the townspeople.

Ness toyed with the visor of his red cap as he sat on the bed in the inn they were staying in while Serene paced the area.

"How can you tell they know?" asked Serene. "Why do you insist that they know?"

"They avoided us, Serene!" shouted the young boy. "They avoided us because they knew!"

"Look, Ness; I understand this treasure is valuable to these people, but how do they know we're taking it?" asked Serene.

"Because they just do!" yelled Ness.

"That's not a good excuse!" yelled Serene. "You know what? It isn't even worth shouting over here. I think that tomorrow we should just set out and find the darn talisman on our own!"

"But we don't know where it is!" said Ness.

"We won't know if we don't go out there and find it ourselves," said Serene. "A lot less reliable, but it's a better solution than asking around to find it amidst 'uncooperative villagers'."

"Hey!" said Ness. "Asking around was your idea!"

"Well, apparently it didn't work," said Serene. "And now I'm adopting a new strategy to find this blasted 'Gem of Parnassus' or whatever."

"Okay, okay!" said Ness. "Just stop yelling at me!"

"I won't stop yelling until you ask nicely!" shouted Serene.

"Who said I had to ask nicely?" asked Ness with a hint of being smart in his voice.

"I did!" yelled Serene as she threw a pad of papers that laid on the desk she happened to be walking very close to at the young boy as he ducked behind the bed he was sitting on. "I'm in charge since you're too immature to do it! Therefore, you'll do as I say, and may your gods help you if you decide to defy me!"

Ness cowered behind the bed, shaking uncontrollably in fear as Serene sat on the edge of the bed and sighed as heavily as she could muster.

_That kid hasn't been given enough discipline in his life…_ thought Serene. _I think I'm going to have to change that right now…_

* * *

A leather boot set foot in mud. 

"Jesus!" said the owner of the boot. "Why does it have to be so muddy here?"

"I don't-a know," said his companion, who was having troubles of his own maneuvering around the area. "It's a very strange-a place!"

"Well, I hope we can get out soon," said the first person. "I'm getting tired of getting all this mud in my shoes. It's not good for your health, you know."

The second person nodded.

Link and Mario had been trudging this land of mud for a while as they tried to find out where they were and what they were looking for. They had landed in a 'land of mud', as was told to them by a green sphere, and from there they had to find a temple full of the thing so that they could collect a monkey's hand.

To Link, it seemed a very ridiculous prospect to ask two people to guard it from a group of people if a lot of mud was able to repulse just about anybody hunting for items. But he had heard that the leader was ferocious and would do anything to get the artifacts disturbed him enough to go.

"I don't-a know about this-a sphere," said Mario as his overalls got muddier and muddier.

"You're saying that because of the mud, right?" asked Link.

"No," said Mario. "There's-a something… superficial… about-a him…"

Link stopped, blue eyes turning to the Italian plumber as they made eye contact.

"I don't think so," said Link. "If somebody says that it's dire, it tends to be dire."

"I know," said Mario. "Still, I can't-a help but-a think about that."

"I understand," said Link. "I don't think we can ask anybody, though, since that sphere certainly would not tell us and it's pretty doubtable a normal person knows about the organization. We'll just have to hope for the best in a situation like this."

"I guess-a so," said Mario.

The two walked on in the mud and the grime.

* * *

"We'll see what we can find. If not, well, tough." 

"What do you mean, 'tough'? If we can't find anything, we keep looking!"

"Why do you say that? I had hope for a family that was doomed to die! And it was my own family, thank you very much!"

"Look, Frank; it never hurts to have confidence."

"No. We look, and that's it!"

Frank Castle shook his head as his companion opened his mouth to say something.

When he had woken up, a man wearing a blue jumpsuit who was calling himself Captain Falcon was trying to wake him up. Castle almost unloaded a few bullets into Falcon's gut, except a green sphere came and said they had to work together. Walking around in a tall series of trees and being lost while trying to find a temple with an artifact, Castle wished he would have plugged a few bullets into Falcon.

The truth was, the racer was just too optimistic; in Castle's mind, such optimism was neither sought out nor useful to anybody. Castle had been an optimistic man once; but his optimism crumbled away with his innocence when his family was killed and the police were too incompetent to get the revenge Castle so badly needed. Thus he felt that optimism got a man nowhere.

He so badly wished he could put Falcon out of his misery right then, but he had to wait until the threat was cleared. Then, he could shoot the racer as many times as he felt.

"Jeez, Frank," said Falcon. "Why so bleak?"

"Because hope is not real," said Castle. "Not in the face of organized crime."

"How do you know?" asked Falcon. "You just need to stick with it."

"No," said Castle. "I learned the hard way that it just does not happen with hope. Now leave me alone about optimism before I'm forced to show you that optimism gets you nowhere."

"You need optimism and action!" said Falcon. "I never said that optimism alone would be enough to solve everything; you need to put your being into the optimism!"

"You don't get it," said Castle. "Even with work, it won't get you anywhere!"

"Oh, come on!" said Falcon. "It will work! Just trust me here!"

Castle shook his head.

"We're wasting time here," said Castle. "Let's go."

Falcon shook his head and followed the man with the trench coat.

_That man has a lot to learn_.

This thought ran in the minds of both men.

* * *

Donkey Kong, as he was called by various others, had been teleported to a spot where he found somebody in a red coat. This man in a red coat seemed to be slightly down about his location, and all the creature heard him talk about were women and adventure. He had an opportunity for adventure, actually, so why he complained about that was beyond the ape. 

Sometimes, however, the man would complain about the lack of women in the vicinity. That much was true.

At least, that was what Donkey Kong understood.

Not a whole lot of people knew about it, but Donkey Kong was actually quite observant; therefore, he knew about what women were and how men could easily be hypnotized by their charms. He saw none where they were, so he was right.

The ape wondered why the man liked women so much. He had heard mumblings about a certain Clara, but from what the ape overheard the man wanted to stay as far away from this 'Clara' as possible, mostly because she kept on chasing him for what had felt like an eternity when he felt he was not ready to settle down.

From this, the ape figured that the man was pretty promiscuous with his tastes in women. He wondered if he had anything to explain that.

Whatever was going on in the man's head, however, it was going to be a pretty interesting trip nonetheless.

Donkey Kong wondered where the other smashers were as well. They had been warped with and away from him, and he had hoped to get close to them somehow.

However, all he was capable of doing was waiting until somebody ran into the two of them so that a conclusion could be reached. He knew he had to do it; even if the green sphere said it would lead to their deaths, he had to.

After all, he was sure he could trust the smashers.


	5. Chapter 4: Search

Hello, people. I've taken forever to write this, haven't I?

Yeah. I'm not going to say much as of now in regards to that. Let's just say that I've been settled in EMF for a while and that I'm having a great time over here.

I have so much to say I can't say it all.

Oh well. I'll just end it there.

Here's the next chapter, and enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 4: Search

A large humanoid turtle walked down a hallway of dirt which surrounded him and his human friend on both sides.

How Leonardo had ended up there was very strange. When he woke up, there was a man in what looked to be military clothing who was nursing Leo back to consciousness. Leo was very surprised that a human was helping him, but all the same Leo was thankful the man had helped him. The man had then introduced himself as Solid Snake. After the two had shaken hands, a green orb flew into the passageway and briefed the two on their mission in where they were, and then it set them on their way.

As they walked, they found that the place they were in was very strange. They would stand on a pressure pad in front of a door and nothing would happen for a while, and yet when they were ready to give up and turn around, no sooner were they beginning to step off of the pad when the door opened for no reason. Some other events also happened for reasons that Leo and Snake could not readily explain, such as staircases changing their vertical alignments.

Leo sighed as he came to another door with a pad next to it.

"Oh dear," said Leo. "Here we go. Again."

The two of them stood on the pressure pad, and when the door failed to open, they waited for something.

"This is a weird place," said Snake. "There's no reason why anything should be moving."

"I know," said Leo. "I know that you work in the espionage department, so do you think you can determine why the shell all this is going on?"

"No," said Snake. "I've timed the intervals everything goes at, and they are just too irregular to be run by a machine of some sort."

"There has to be a reason why, though," said Leo. "If we can't find it out, then we shouldn't bother trying."

"Yep," said Snake.

He pulled a small little box with a stripe around it out of his pocket and took out a white cylinder with brown on one side from the box. He also took out a flame-colored gadget. After this little affair, the secret agent brought the object up to his lips, opened the gadget, lit the cylinder with a flame, and inhaled.

Leo watched the man smoke his cigarette in silence. Leo really wanted to comment about how smoking cigarettes was dangerous to a person's health and whatnot, but he knew better than that. Besides, Leo had no real knowledge as to why it was harmful to the lungs; that was one thing he would have to ask his brother Donatello about when he returned to New York.

"You know, this kind of reminds me of the kind of thing I do at my work," said Snake as he took the cigarette out of his mouth and exhaled. The black cloud of smoke that came with the agent's exhalation was hardly noticeable in the dim lighting of the hall.

"So you mean you wait for things to move themselves before you go somewhere?" asked Leo.

"Sort of," said Snake. "Except that in the case of my work, I have quite a bit of tension on me from being too aware of my surroundings. You see, I need to wait for security guards to move around before I can, since if I am caught the missions I am sent on can go very wrong."

"I can see why you'd be so tense then," said Leo.

"This is a change that I really need," said Snake. "I had moved to a mansion somewhere in order to relax, but I only live there for two days when this black sphere comes and sucks me into a strange place with you in it!"

Leo chuckled lightly.

"I can see that you would not need a whole lot of stealth in this place," said Leo. "In that case, you always keep your guns on you?"

"Yes," said Snake.

He opened his mouth to say something else when the door in front of them opened to reveal a large chamber with the staircases.

"Well, it decided to open," said Leo. "Come on."

The two of them walked into the next room, wondering how they were going to get through the room as they walked.

* * *

Samus emerged from a hole that led into a cave and inhaled very deeply. 

It had turned out that the location of the artifact nearest the two of them was within the oasis that Fox had landed next to. She was very annoyed that the two of them had to swim to get to the area with the artifact, but she was sure that it meant the organization would not be able to tell that the two of them were aiming for the artifact until it was too late. The bounty hunter knew from years of experience that they could surprise an enemy by simply being somewhere at the right time.

That would be the perfect opportunity to strike.

"Hey, Samus!" said Fox. "This is nice, isn't it?"

"Yes," said Samus. The rocks of the cave were somewhat illuminated by the shimmering surface of the water, which in turn was being lit by the otherwise unruly desert sun. A shine emanated from the water that Samus figured was caused by the presence of jewels in the water below the hole, but the science really did not matter as the shine emanated throughout the expanse of the cavern.

"I think we better go find our artifact," said Samus. "What say you?"

"Sure," said Fox. "I believe the nearest opening is this way."

Fox walked towards a low entrance which was illuminated by a different light.

"I wonder what that light is," said Samus. "Why is it so… green?"

"I don't know," said Fox. "Only thing is, we won't know unless we keep on going."

"True," said Samus.

As they walked down the passage, Samus realized that the other people that were sucked into the black sphere could be stuck in the exact situation that the two of them were in. She decided she should ask the kitsune about what to do.

"Say Fox," said Samus. "You got any idea where the others are?"

"No," replied Fox. "Why do you ask?"

"I was thinking we should find the others that were warped with us and ask if they will help," said Samus. "I mean, we do know each other well, and I think it would be a good idea if we told the next smasher we find about what's going on to see if they want to help."

"Are you sure they won't be working for the organization, though?" asked Fox. "Remember the green sphere told us not to trust anybody."

"Yes, but we can trust our friends," said Samus.

"What if they've been brainwashed by the organization?" asked Fox. "What will that mean?"

"They won't recognize us," said Samus. "But if they do, then the organization hasn't gotten to them yet. Then, we try to see if they want to help. If they have been brainwashed by the organization and we jump to conclusions, we fight, we survive, and we host the funeral."

The kitsune chuckled at this last bit of humor, but he turned solemn once again.

"Sounds like a plan to me," said Fox. "I just hope they're okay…"

Fox and Samus walked on in the cavern.

* * *

"Lina doesn't get why nobody's saying anything…" 

"Don't worry about it. We'll see what we can do."

Largo and Lina had made up for their fight earlier since Largo truly did not know where Lina's friends were. After that, they had begun searching the city they were in for the artifact they were supposed to be looking for.

After quite a while of searching, the two of them had gotten nowhere. No matter how many people they had asked, they knew nothing of the Rope of Istar, and so they continued searching.

They asked all range of people; they asked the old men that sat on the benches waiting for nothing, they asked the children who were playing games, they asked the women who stood at the doors of their husbands inns, they even asked lovers who were standing hand in hand on the bridge that hung over the water. Still, whoever they asked, they found nobody.

Several hours of this searching had gone on for a while.

"Lina's tired!" yelled Lina. "I want some rest."

"Well, I guess we can't find any more information here," said Largo. "Let's rest at the nearest inn."

They had to walk another hour throughout the very large city that they were exploring. It was quite strange, actually; they had woken up in a city with architecture that was very strange to them, and yet nobody thought their garb was strange; in fact, the garb of everybody else was very similar to what Lina and Largo were wearing. They also found weapon shops that sold crossbows and axes and other standard fare, so the berserker figured that such clothing was normal in their area.

Eventually, they found an inn and entered. The scene was pretty tranquil, with a single woman behind a wooden platform. The woman's black hair wrapped around her face as if to veil it, and her emerald eyes shone very slowly in the darkness of both night and lack of lamplight. When she took notice of the two weary people who entered her inn, she walked up to the platform and smiled.

"Hello," said the woman. "Is there any way I can help you?"

"Yes," said Largo. "We were hoping for a room for two, if you will?"

"Of course," said the woman. "Is the girl related to you somehow?"

"No," said Lina. "We just met."

"I see," said the woman. "Why are you two together then?"

"To talk about exactly what happened would take a while," said Largo. "Perhaps you'll understand later."

"I see," said the woman. "In that case, I have two rooms empty, and I believe you only need one, right?"

"Yes," said Largo. "Thank you."

"You're very welcome," said the woman. "I believe you cannot pay anything now?"

"No," said Largo.

"Well, don't worry about that," said the woman. "I have a discount system with which I allow some people without gold to stay for free, after which they can get a job and eventually pay off the days they stay at the inn."

"Lina likes it very much!" said Lina.

"As do I," said Largo.

"All right, then," said the Woman. "It's settled!"

Largo turned to go to Lina before the archer ran up to the wooden platform.

"Also, I wanna ask you something," said Lina.

"Of course, my dear," said the woman.

"Would you happen to know anything about a 'Rope of Istar' around here?" asked Lina.

"Rope of Istar?" asked the woman.

"Yes," said Lina.

"Hm…" said the woman as she cupped her hand to her chin to think.

Finally, she brought it down.

"Yes," said the woman. "I believe you are signing up for the Tag Tournament, then?"

"Tag Tournament?" asked Lina. "Lina doesn't get it…"

"It's a prestigious tournament around these parts," said the woman. "Thirteen teams of two gather in this city every five years to fight for the Rope of Istar."

"Really?" asked Largo.

"Yes," said the woman. "There are still four slots left. If you want, I can run over to the manager of the city coliseum to tell him you are interested."

"That would be wonderful!" said Largo.

"All right," said the woman as she grabbed her gray shawl from where it lay on a small table next to her. "Your names, please?"

"Lina and Largo," said the berserker, pointing at the archer and himself.

"Right," said the woman. "Do you think you'll be staying in this inn very long?"

"Since we have no money," said Largo.

"Don't worry about that," said the woman. "The matches before the final give quite a hefty amount of gold."

"Well, since you've been kind to us as of yet, I think we will," said Largo.

"Okay, then I ought to give you my name," said the woman. "My name is Elise."

"Right," said Lina. "Gotcha!"

"Okay," said Elise. "I think I'll go to the coliseum manager now. Your room is on the second floor, and when you go on the right side of the hall it's the second door to your left."

"Thank you," said Largo.

"You're very welcome," said Elise.

She then walked out of her inn via an entrance behind the wooden platform.

"Lina likes that girl," said Lina.

"She is nice," said Largo. "I think we'll be able to trust her."

"Yeah," said Lina. "Now let's go! Lina can't wait to see her room!"

Largo nodded and trotted up the stairs to their room.

* * *

"Jeez! Look at the size of that thing!" 

A certain air pirate stared in awe at what appeared to be the Temple of Trees.

A huge natural awning made of willows and redwoods formed a large structure in the woods. An opening lay in between the mass of trees which was guarded by a large magical screen that sparkled in the morning light. Golden apples hung from the top of the awning, and these also shone with the brilliance of a thousand suns.

Vyse was awestruck for a very long time. He had never seen anything quite like what was in front of him. Marcus was also very surprised at the site.

It took a very long time to adjust to the grandeur of the spectacle, after which Vyse put his hands on his hips and smiled.

"Well, this is going to be pretty interesting," said Vyse. "Don't you think?"

"Yes," said Markus. "It looks so… pure…"

"Never seen anything like it, huh?" asked Vyse.

"Never," said Markus. "Most of what I've seen in my life has consisted of heavily damaged buildings and grey everywhere."

"Well then, I can see why you'd be so surprised to see all of this," said Vyse.

"I know," said Markus. "My squadron would be dying to hear about this."

"They were in the same kind of problems you were in?" asked Vyse.

"Still are, in fact," said Markus. "I hope they're doing okay without me there to direct them."

"Yes," said Vyse.

_I also hope Aika and Fina are okay_, thought Vyse. _We took quite a hit when the Little Jack began to sink._

"Let's go," said Markus. "We need to find the artifact."

Vyse nodded and followed the squadron commander to the temple.

* * *

"Is this network of passageways and doors that open for no reason going to end?" asked Leo, more to himself than Snake. 

They had just survived a very bizarre room where it rotated when they hit a few switches and waited a little bit. They had gone down a hall shaped like an inverted and reversed L, and they had arrived at a door with a pressure pad again.

"I don't know," said Snake. "We can hope for the best, but at this point I can't guarantee anything."

Leo shrugged and stepped on the pressure pad.

After waiting a few seconds, the door opened to reveal an orange path that led to a platform, and then another suspended pathway leading to a large black treasure chest.

"Finally," said Leo. "About time we find something!"

Snake and Leo stepped through the doorway and walked onto the platform.

"Well, there it is," said Snake. "That's gotta be one hefty chest over there."

"Yay!" shouted an energetic and distinctly feminine voice from nowhere. "Finally we can get Daccat's treasure!"

Leo jumped at this exclamation. Snake brandished his gun and Leo drew his twin katanas as both of them turned in the direction the voice came from.

The voice came from a doorway that was reached by a blue pathway of similar nature to the orange pathway that Snake and Leo had just traversed. When they turned around, they saw two women in the doorway. One of them had fiery hair put up in the strangest braids one would have seen, along with a somewhat skimpy orange suit and goggles, a pair of energetic seas in a white mass just underneath the hair and goggles. The second one also had blue eyes, though in her case they were much more subdued in nature and they lay under both blonde hair and a silver veil. She wore a strange silver dress with the shoes to match, cleavage showing a little in a triangle of bare skin that was exposed by part of the dress.

"Who's there?" asked Leo.

"Who's there you?" asked the woman with braids.

"Or rather, what's there?" asked the other woman.

Leo's grip on his katanas almost lost itself in his hands at the question of what was there. Leo had been so used to Snake's acceptance of what he was that a question like the one the quiet voice asked snapped him back into reality.

And besides, what could he tell her? The place had its tinges of age and times gone by about it, so would the two people in question understand what a mutagen was?

"Me?" asked Leo. "Well…"

"He's a humanoid turtle," answered Snake.

"Hey!" snapped Leo.

"Forget trying to find ways to euphemize it," said Snake. "They ask a question, and you answer them."

"You two don't seem to get along," said the first woman, now a slight bit subdued but still quite energetic.

This comment rendered Snake and Leo even more surprised than they already were.

"Eh…" said Leo.

"Well…" said Snake.

"I can see you are fine then," said the shy voice. "Why are you here?"

"Well…" said Leo.

"I don't think it's best to divulge as to why," said Snake. "Would you happen to know why these doors have been opening by themselves and why stairways and floors have changed direction for no reason?"

The more energetic girl seemed a little surprised at this comment.

"How'd you know?" she asked.

"What do you mean, how do you know?" asked Leo.

"The same thing happened with us," said the second woman. "Doors opened for no reason and staircases aligned themselves for no reason. Would that be what you're talking about?"

"Well, I hit a switch sometimes and it didn't seem to do anything…" said Snake. "And then—."

Nothing was said for quite a while.

Then, the energetic woman started to laugh. The second woman came after her, Snake following close behind.

"I guess I'm not the only one who realizes that we just helped each other from opposite sides of the place without knowing it," said Leo, who was himself about ready to laugh.

The laughing went on for quite a while. When it ended, Leo decided it would be good to find out who the two women were.

"Well, since we helped each other, the least we could do is ask for names," said Leo. "Why don't you come on over?"

The two women walked on the pathway and stood on the platform.

"This is a little awkward," said the second woman.

"I can see why," said Leo. "After all, who unknowingly helps somebody from the other side of something without knowing it?"

"Yeah," said the energetic girl. "The name's Aika."

"And I'm Fina," said the second woman.

Leo nodded quite simply.

"Those are nice names," said Snake. "Too bad they aren't common where I come from."

"Really?" asked Aika.

"Very much so," said Leo. "In any event, I'm Leonardo, and this is Snake."

"Those are pretty good names, too," said Aika. "I don't believe I've ever heard Snake, though…"

"It's a codename," said Snake.

"What's a codename?" asked Fina.

"Oh, don't worry Fina," said Aika. "I believe it's what an agent calls himself amongst his friends. You don't work for Valua, do you?"

The question posed to the FOXHOUND agent was very strange.

"What's Valua?" asked Snake.

"Wait a minute!" said Aika. "You mean to tell me that you are in Arcadia yet don't know what the Valuan Empire is?"

"Arcadia?" asked Leo. "You mean—?"

"I think so," said Snake, who had stopped Leo from going any further.

Leo had expected himself to be somewhere unfamiliar, but being in another world was far beyond what the ninja turtle expected.

"Oh, dear," said Aika. "But whether you know about Valua or not doesn't matter. It's clear you don't work for them."

"In that case, do you think you can help us?" asked Fina.

"Help you with what?" asked Leo.

"Well, it's a long story," said Fina. "We were separated from a friend of ours, and we need to find him as soon as we can. You see, Valua is after us because we hold a key to destroying the world that they want to exploit. So we were wondering—"

"What sort of key?" asked Snake.

"We'll explain later," said Aika. "Anyways, we were hoping that you could come along with us and attempt to find him."

"Seriously?" asked Leo.

"Yes," said Fina. "We're very worried about him, and truth be told, we have our own quest to undertake."

"Quest?" asked Snake. "Let me guess... Collecting things?"

"Crystals, to be exact," said Aika. "But we need them, and we need some help finding our friend and the crystals."

"Well, I don't see why not, but—" Snake began before Leo gestured him to remain quiet.

"Do you trust me in my state?" asked Leo.

"Well, of course we do!" said Aika. "After all, we did help each other from opposite sides of the island."

"And do you promise to clothe me when we get to the nearest city?" asked Leo.

"Aika, don't we have a spare cloak in our boat?" asked Fina.

"Yes," said Aika. "Which means we can clothe you right away!"

"Right," said Leo. "Now, after we finish this quest, you two must promise me something."

"Yes?" asked Aika and Fina at the same time.

"We are on our own quest," said Leo. "If we help you on your quest, you must promise to return the favor and help us on our quest."

"Well, it certainly sounds like an adventure!" said Aika excitedly. "Count me in!"

"Okay," said Leo. "Then consider us part of your group!"

"Yay!" said Aika. "Now let's open that chest and see what's in it!"

Snake and Leo nodded, and Aika pranced on the walkway leading to the chest as Leo, Snake, and Fina followed close behind. The party of four approached the chest, noticing the lock on it.

"Oh, dear," said Aika. "Why don't we have a key?"

"We don't need a key," said Snake as he pulled out a wire and an L-shaped device.

The then inserted the L-shaped device into the lock such that the small part of the L was in, and then he placed the wire. After toying around with the lock, it opened.

"What did you just do?" asked Fina.

"I picked the lock," said Snake. "Now let's open that chest.

After the lock was removed, they opened the chest. To everybody's great disappointment, the large chest had no more than a single coin and a note.

"Hey!" said Aika disappointedly once the chest was open. "There's nothing in here!"

"Hm…" said Leo. "I wonder what the note says…"

Leo took out the coin, figuring it was the Daccat's coin that he and Snake were looking for, and he read the note.

"What does it say?" asked Fina.

"It talks about how we've made friends and how that is the greatest treasure there is," said Leo.

"Aw!" said Aika. "And we would have used that treasure to find our friend!"

"Well, in any event you have more people to help with your cause," said Snake. "Let's go back to the nearest city, yes?"

"Of course," said Fina. "Follow us."

Thus, the group started the trek to Fina and Aika's boat.


	6. Chapter 5: Continuity

And here we are again. I know. I've taken a while to do this.

Whatever. The festival is too much fun to neglect.

I don't have a lot to say, since a lot is going on right now.

You know the rest. Here's the next chapter. Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 5: Continuity

"Well, here we are."

"Finally! I was startin' ta wonder if this place even existed."

"Well, we know now Raph."

Bowser and Raphael had come across the Temple of Light after a day or two of walking. Of course, given the fact that it was dark outside, the temple was easy to see given the fact that a golden radiance emanated from the building. That was all one could see from a distance, really, since the radiance was overpowering in the darkness.

"No wonder people call this the Temple of Light," said Bowser. "It's so… bright…"

"Yeah, yeah," said Raph as he got impatient. "Now can we get the treasure so I can go home?"

"Whoah!" said Bowser. "We don't even know what's coming up ahead, man! Settle down!"

"Well, we keep walking 'til we find an entrance," said Raph. "I can't wait to get home."

"And then what do you go home to?" asked Bowser.

Raph opened his mouth to speak, but then it clamped shut as Raph realized that he was not sure what he would return home to.

"Well," said Bowser. "Figures you would want to wait. Now let's go."

Raph just shrugged as he followed the larger turtle to the temple.

"I don't think this guy knows what it's like to have to deal with a large family…" muttered Raph under his breath.

However, Bowser heard this comment and shook his head.

"Trust me, Raph," said Bowser. "You think you have a hectic family life? I have to raise eight kids all by myself. You got any idea how hard that is?"

Raph was surprised that the koopa king had said this, but he decided not to ask about it.

"I guess not," said Raph. "I guess that my dad is better off than you."

"Exactly," said Bowser. "Listen, kid; you really have to appreciate your family for what it is, since otherwise you lose sight on the fact that a person's love is the greatest gift anybody can give you."

_Try saying that to a turtle that has had to live underground to avoid frightening people away, why don't you?_ thought Raph bitterly.

The two continued walking towards the light.

* * *

Link had kept on walking to find himself in front of what looked to be a whirlpool in the mud. This whirlpool was actually a small pit with a large hole in the center of it that was enough for both Link and Mario to enter. The mud started to change color so that it was white as it neared the opening in the mud, which looked a little strange. 

"Well, this is a strange sight," said Link. "What do you think is in there?"

"I don't-a know," said Mario. "What were-a you expecting for the Temple of-a Mud?"

"I was expecting a building made of mud," said Link. "But I don't think this is it. Come on."

Link was about to walk forward when he felt something attach to his right leg that then dragged him towards the hole.

"Mamma mia!" yelled Mario, who then ran around the hole to try to get to Link.

However, by the time the plumber had gotten to Link, it was too late; Link had been pulled into the hole by an indescribable force that was apparently very powerful.

"Oh no!" said Mario, fidgeting as he thought about what he could do.

He decided the only thing he could do was jump into the hole after Link in hopes of finding him in there alive.

"Oh dear…" said Mario as he faced the hole. "Link! I'm-a coming!"

Mario jumped into the hole, but instead of falling into a pitch black area the way he had expected to, he landed in a room. The lighting was not very sufficient, but he was able to make out walls and the floor being made of mud, with a wooden door immediately in front of him.

"Well," said Mario. "I guess this-a was the place after all… I hope Link is okay…"

Mario walked to the door and opened it.

"But to make sure, there is only one thing to-a do," he said aloud, before walking through the doorway.

"I have-a to go in."

* * *

"Jeez! These guys must hate us!" 

"Ness, they don't hate us! They just don't want to talk to us!"

"Shut up! I can read minds, okay?"

Serene growled and almost tore her hair out because of Ness' impudence.

They had woken early to try to find the artifact nearby; however, they had no luck finding any place where they could possibly find the item. Therefore, they went to asking the same people where the Rope of Istar was.

And they continually had no luck.

The young boy insisted that the people they asked hated them, which Serene thought was absurd; he had no idea how human psyche worked despite the fact that he read minds for fun. She figured he wanted to cop out, but the sprite knew that if she did not keep trying nothing would come of their efforts.

Thus, she looked at Ness, who was sitting on a crate. They were in a desolate market place, with only a stray soul or two to notice the friction between the two forces. Ness sat on the crate next to a silk stall, trying to eat a piece of bread that they had to buy at the baker's earlier that day when they went to get lunch and find a snack so that they did not have to later.

"Get up," said Serene. "We'll keep asking until we find somebody who knows about a Rope of Istar, whether you think these guys hate us or not."

"Rope of Istar?" asked an elderly voice to Serene's left.

Both visitors were violently shocked by the proximity of the voice such that they jumped when they heard the voice. Serene turned around dangerously to behold an elderly woman next to them with tattered clothes and a worn cane.

"You know something about it?" asked Serene.

"Yes, my dear," said the woman. "Are you trying to attain it?"

Both people in the team nodded.

"That is the prize for winning the Tag Tournament here," said the old woman. "My husband used to love to fight for it. He lost every time, but he still kept on trying…"

"Really?" asked Ness. "What happened?"

"He died after seven years," said the old woman. "The poor man…"

"How'd he die?" asked Serene.

"He was found dead in his room in the coliseum," said the old woman. "Many people suspect an opponent of his did it."

"That's horrible," said Ness. "Anyways, we have to enter that tournament to get the rope, right?"

"Yes," said the old woman. "However, my son is the tournament manager, and he told me that there are no slots available."

This news surprised and shocked Ness and Serene even more than they already were to the point that they were disgusted.

"So we can't fight for it?" asked Serene.

"No," said the old woman.

Serene nodded.

"Thanks for the information, anyways," said Serene. "We asked several people around here what it was, and yet you were the only one who answered. Why is that?"

"It's not called the Rope of Istar to the public," said the woman. "It's just referred to as 'the prize rope' around here."

"Oh," said Ness. "Thank you for the information."

"You are very welcome, young man," said the old woman. "I must be off now. I think my son is worried about me in my current state. Good day."

"Bye," said Serene.

They waited until the old woman disappeared behind the nearest shop. Serene then looked at Ness, animosity filling her eyes.

"I told you they didn't hate us!" said Serene. "Now that you know that, stop pretending you know everything! Just because you can read minds and things like that doesn't mean you know everything!"

"I'd say the same to you," said Ness. "I read your mind about how you're the last of your race. So? That gives you no right over me!"

"Shut up!" yelled Serene. "I told you that I know better than you!"

"Whatever," said Ness. "At any rate, we're sitting ducks waiting here."

"So what are you suggesting we do?" asked Serene.

"I say we find out how many days we have until the end of the tournament and use that time to find other artifacts," said Ness. "Then, we come back and take the rope from the winner."

"Finally, you say something good," said Serene. "That's the first good idea anybody's had in a long time…"

"You don't say," said Ness, not catching Serene's humorous tone. "So, who should we go ask?"

"Everybody," said Serene. "They should know about the tournament."

"Right," said Ness. "Now that we know they don't hate us, let's ask!"

Ness jumped off of the crate he was on, Serene shaking her head and following in his wake as they began their search for the answer to their next question.

* * *

A colorful merchant ship landed in a wooden dock at the outskirts of a desert town. A set of stairs led to a gate, and several merchants walked in the fairly sizeable area at the foot of the stairs. Going up the stairs, one would have beheld a town quite vast in scope, made of clay buildings and leather covers. One would eventually have come to a royal palace with spherical domes topped with a strange cone. 

This was the desert city of Nasrad.

An energetic young girl with fiery hair jumped off of the ship.

"Well, guys, here we are!" said Aika.

Fina walked onto the dock next, followed by Snake. A hooded figure in a long cloak emerged afterwards.

The hooded figure was of course Leonardo. The girls did have a cloak in their ship as they had told Leo, and they wasted no time in clothing him with it once they arrived at the ship. Now, instead of the green skin and shell, a brown leather surface was what covered the turtle.

"This certainly looks like a nice place," said Snake. "It might get hot, but it's better than nothing."

"I still can't believe we're in a world that's floating in the sky," said Leo. "I never thought such a thing could exist…"

Leo and Snake had to get out of quite a shock when they left the so-called Daccat's Isle; the two of them had warped not only to another world, but they had warped to a world where the sea was not made of water. They were shocked to find their boat floating in the air. They were shocked to find entire landmasses in constant levitation in the sky. This shocked them beyond anything they had ever seen before.

"I can understand such an abrupt transition," said Fina. "I would be surprised if I was in a world where the ocean was made of water as you say it is."

"At any rate, we should get going on our quest," said Snake. "We should stay at the inn, you know?"

"Yes," said Aika. "Come on!"

The quartet walked to the stairwell.

Just as they arrived at the top of the stairwell, however, what sounded like a cannon shot sounded in the city.

Leo turned to look at the direction the sound came from, as did the other four members of the group.

"Oh, no!" said Aika as she beheld the sight. "It's the armada!"

A group of metal ships was seen after beginning an attack on Nasrad with cannon fire. The largest ship was hovering over the area above the city as cannonballs whipped up craters in the ground, sending up enormous clouds of sand as they did.

"What's going on?" asked Snake loudly.

"It's the Valuan Armada!" shouted Fina. "They found us!"

"Oh dear," said Leo. "That's not good!"

"Yeah!" shouted Aika. "We need to get out of here!"

The others nodded and ran back down the stairs.

However, just as they rounded the left side of the stairs, they ground to a halt as a man with silver hair and clothing dark as the night appeared in front of them.

"Hm?" asked Leo. "Why are you in the way? We need to get out of here."

"I guess you have no idea that I am of the Valuan Armada then…" said the figure, eyes probing into the group.

The four of them looked shocked, though the hood of Leo's cloak kept everybody from noticing.

"Allow me to introduce myself," continued the man, acting as if their shock was nonexistent. "I am Ramirez, 6th Admiral of the Valuan Armada."

"So you're leading the attack on them," said Snake. "Why would you harm women and children?"

"Let us say that this is a rivalry that has been going since before I was born," said Ramirez as he paced around the group. "Now, I know that the girl is with you. Therefore, you must have two of the moon crystals. Now, I will give you two options."

With this, he stopped pacing and pulled out a silver rapier that looked too heavy to be carried by the thin man that Ramirez was.

"You can surrender and live," said the admiral. "Or, you can keep resisting, and die."

"Die, you say?" asked Leo, hands moving to his katanas where he had them on the back of his cloak. "We'll see about that."

"Wait!" said Fina, who ran to Leo before he could grasp the handles on his swords.

"Fina!" said Leo. "We could die if we surrender! What are you doing?"

"You can't beat him in the state you are in!" said Fina. "Surrender is our only option."

Leo hesitated, looking at Fina.

"Fina, there has to be another way!" said Leo.

"Please!" said Fina, grabbing the sleeve of Leo's cloak pleadingly. "I know what I'm saying!"

Leo's hands stood where they were for a minute as the cannonballs flew above them into the city above.

Then, Leo's hands fell from where the swords were, deciding to trust Fina's words.


	7. Chapter 6: Tag Tournament

Hello, children. How's life?

The festival is about to draw to a close. Overall, I had a great time, and leaving this place is really going to be hard. It lead to lots of musical development, so I'm really happy about that. I'm gonna miss this place, too; I really needed a beautiful location like the one at the festival. You know the rest.

I introduce something else here, so let's get the disclaimer out of the way, shall we?

Tales of Symphonia does not belong to me; it belongs to the guys at Namco.

Anyways, with that out of the way I can now give you this chapter. Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 6: Tag Tournament

Lina and Largo sat in a lounge in the coliseum. They had gotten early to registration so that they could get a chance at gaining the rope first. The two of them were actually the first ones there, as the lounge was empty of other people. Lina and Largo sat in nervous anticipation, wondering when the others would come.

Neither of them had said anything for a long time. Lina was starting to doze off and Largo just kept looking ahead.

Finally, the berserker could not handle the boredom any more. He turned to Lina.

"Say, Lina," said Largo. "You nervous?"

Lina took a while to break out of her sleepy stupor, moaning and then lifting her head up, eyes squinting in tiredness.

"Huh?" asked Lina weakly.

"I asked if you were nervous," said Largo.

"Oh," said Lina as she woke up. "Lina is very nervous."

"I can see why," said Largo. "I hope somebody else arrives. I'm getting bored sitting here."

As if on cue, the door of the room opened, allowing a group of what looked to be four people to walk in. They headed straight for the registration table.

This was a heavily assorted group made of strange people. The first was a swordsman with brown spiky hair who wore a shirt the color of blood and had a pair of swords on his waist. The second was a girl with hair the color of butter and a strange white shirt with blue patterns on it. The third was another girl, this time with rosy hair sticking away from the sides of her hair and a dark uniform on her. The fourth was a man with long cerulean hair who wore a white simpleton's shirt.

"Hello," said the fat man sitting at the registration dance. "I take it you are here for the tournament?"

"Yes," said the fourth one as he stepped forward.

"Well, then," said the fat man. "All you have to do is sign here and you're good to go!"

With this comment, the fat man pointed at a sheet of paper that lay on the desk.

One by one, the members of the group signed their names, and afterwards looked at the fat man for further instruction.

"That is all," said the fat man. "Please take a seat so we can brief the contestants on the conditions once everybody is here."

"Thank you," said the fourth person.

They left the desk. It was then that the person with the red shirt noticed Lina and Largo there.

"Oh," he said. "I guess we're not the only ones here right now."

Largo had been watching them the entire time, so he took no surprise to their comment. However, Lina was looking at the floor. When she was addressed, she perked up.

"Of course we were!" said Lina. "Lina would be stupid if we sat here for no reason!"

"Really?" asked the woman with the butter-colored hair as she walked up to the two of them.

"Yes," said Lina energetically.

Largo nodded.

"And you guys are…?" asked the first person.

"Oh, right!" said Largo. "I'm Largo, and she's Lina."

The berserker pointed first at himself, then at Lina as he said this.

The girl with the pink hair nodded.

"Nice to make acquaintances with you," she said.

"I'm Lloyd," began the man with the red shirt. "This here is Collette, she's Presea, and this man here is Regal."

As he talked, he pointed first at the girl with the butter-colored hair, then the girl with the rose-colored hair, and finally the man with the white shirt.

"Right," said Largo. "So you're fighting exactly how?"

"Well, Presea and I are one group," said Regal. "Lloyd and Collette are another."

"I see," said Largo.

"Lina's nervous!" said Lina.

"Why's that?" asked Collette.

"Well, we—"

"She's never done something like this," said Largo before Lina could say anything else.

Regal nodded.

"Understandable," he said.

"Believe us, Lina," said Presea. "There is a 97.42 chance of being nervous the first time through. The best we can do is to hold it in and taking a breath."

Lina perked her head a little, noticing the fact that Presea's calculation seemed almost too exact.

"Oh, don't worry about it," said Lloyd, laughing a little as he walked to Presea. "She is intelligent is all."

"Oh," said Lina. "Lina didn't get that kind of thing."

"Believe me," said Collette. "When we first saw Presea, we thought the exact same thing."

"Really?" asked Largo.

"Yes," said Lloyd.

The group sat down, and the conversation continued as the door opened again.

* * *

A group of twenty-six individuals sat in the arena of the coliseum. They all sat in chairs as they watched a man at the mayor's stand in the audience. 

Lloyd was very nervous. Much like Lina, he was nervous to a major point. Having Collette with him helped, but the tension was very horrible on him. The swordsman knew that he had to get there and fight to win, but he wondered why he was one of the ones sent amidst prestigious warriors.

"Good afternoon to all of you," said the man in the mayor's stand. "As you all know, you are at the Tag Tournament this year. Of course, the same conditions as those of last year hold; you fight in groups of two until both members of the opposing team are knocked out. There will also be environmental matches where the environment will be such that the features can get in your way."

_Great,_ thought Lloyd bitterly. _I've never had to work with that before…_

"However, the environmental matches will only affect those who show a great versatility in an open space," continued the announcer. "Thus, not everybody can get one. For practice, there are three practice arenas where each member of a team can practice with his or her teammate for matches. It is recommended that you make frequent use of these practice arenas, as people do say that practice makes perfect."

_Right,_ thought Lloyd. _I've already had enough practice from the journey of regeneration, though…_

"You may stay in the inns that you used upon entering this town," said the announcer. "However, if you are paranoid about deadlines, there are quarters here that you may use; you simply need to alert us of your intentions and you are good to go. Your next Epponent and your date of the match will be posted on a wooden board that you can check just as you leave the coliseum. If you have any further questions, you may contact me afterwards. Remember; this is a tournament! Rough behavior between matches that goes on between two opponents will not be taken lightly! I now welcome you to the tournament!"

Some clapping was heard, but the general response was too concentrated on waiting for him to say something else.

* * *

"Well, how'd it go?" 

"It went really well. We met some new people, and we know things we never knew."

"Lina can't wait for the match tomorrow!"

"Why do you say that?"

"Our first match is tomorrow. It kicks off the tournament, actually."

"Oh. In that case, you both should be excited. The winner of the first match generally tends to do well in the rest of the tournament."

"Really?"

"Yes, Lina."

"Wee! When this is over, I'm telling my friends about all the fun I've had!"

Elise smiled and wiped another glass.

It was after hours in the tavern in the in that Lina and Largo were staying in. The two of them were chatting with Elise at the bar, where she was busy wiping cups that had earlier stored beer before the occupants drank it all up. Elise was very interested in what Lina and Largo had to say about the first day. They had arrived at the inn a bit late, but the woman never minded late visitors.

"It's a hard tournament, though," said Elise. "You have to be prepared for almost anything."

"Yeah," said Largo. "At least Lina has the world's best berserker with her!"

At this, Largo stood from his chair at the bar and stood up, chest protruding from his figure as his hands stood by his waists almost comically.

Elise could not help but chuckle.

"A rather dubious title, I must say," said the innkeeper.

Largo's smile faded a little, and his hands dropped to his sides.

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Largo.

Elise laughed, with Lina following close behind.

"Hey!" said Largo.

Elise took a while to stop laughing, but when she was finished she looked at the berserker with an earnest face. Lina was still tumbling on the floor by this time.

"Despite the dubious title, though, I must say that you are quite the guy to make ladies shiver," said Elise.

"Really?" asked Largo. "What do you mean by that?"

"Think about it," said Elise. "You're attractive, you're muscular, and you are incredibly cheerful."

"You really sure about that?" asked Largo.

"Want me to prove it to you?" asked Elise. "Go off to the main bar in town. I believe it's called 'Derecho' or something like that. There are plenty of girls who go there to find men. Sit somewhere, and see how many girls stop by your table or otherwise glance in your direction."

"Okay," said Largo. "You're on!"

"Right," said Elise. "Keep in mind that sometimes girls will get in your pants if they drag you to their house. Be prepared for anything."

"Get in my pants?" asked Largo. "Does that mean they'll try to do something to me?"

"Yes," said the innkeeper as she wiped another glass. "I've heard it's pleasurable, though, so I would play along if they try to get you to do something."

"Right," said Largo. By this time, the little girl had stopped laughing.

"So, anyways, you think you should go to bed?" asked Elise. "I mean, you do have a match tomorrow and the least you could do at a time like this is to get as much sleep as possible."

"But I'm not tired!" said Lina, whose head perked upon hearing this.

"I don't know, Lina," said Largo. "She has a point. I think I will, at least. Good night, Elise."

"Good night," said Elise, watching Largo's burly figure walk out of the room.

Lina looked there, then back at the innkeeper.

"Wait for me!" shouted Lina as she abruptly stood up and ran after him with Elise's laughter serving as an accompaniment.

* * *

The first match of the tournament was about to start. Largo and Lina stood behind a barred in a tunnel at their end of the coliseum, waiting for their cue to enter. They were able to hear a speech being given outside about their opposing team; the two warriors were about to face a pair of ninjas nobody really knew about. They were apparently very good, so Lina and Largo knew they had a force to reckon with. 

As a trumpet fanfare sounded, Largo turned to Lina.

"You nervous?" asked Largo.

"Lina's scared…" said Lina. Indeed, the normally cheerful girl was staring ahead of her, face bleached against the darkness such that the light that came in from the gate made her look like a ghost.

Largo looked back at the gate.

"Don't worry, Lina," said Largo. "I'm scared too. But to back out now would be a bad idea, so I want you to give it all you've got for me, got it?"

Lina nodded, though the color still had not returned to her face.

"Good," said Largo.

Suddenly, a trumpet fanfare sounded, and the gate in front of them lifted. The two warriors then stepped into the arena to find a blaze of sunlight greet them. Across the arena from them were the two ninjas they were facing during the next match.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" shouted an announcer as they stepped out. "These two are about to duke it out! Who will win and proceed to the next stage? Only destiny will tell. With that, I give you the fight! Fighters, prepare yourselves!"

Largo raised his axe as the two ninjas raised their weapons. One weapon was a katana, and the other held a bo staff in his hands.

"Lina, you ready for this?" asked Largo.

The young girl pulled out her bow, hand on the quivers jutting from her backpack.

"As I'll ever be," said Lina.

"Fighters ready?" asked the announcer.

Both competitors nodded and looked at their opponents.

"Fight!" shouted the announcer.

The ninjas made the first move, running towards the two opponents as Largo looked at Lina.

"Get as far away as you can and cover me!" shouted Largo.

Lina had no time to ask questions, so she ran just as Largo held up his axe to block both weapons. The berserker blocked a strike from the katana, at the same time knocking down the man with the bo staff as Lina readied an arrow at the man with the katana and fired. This arrow connected, which oddly enough sent the competitor flying back against the wall.

How this happened, Lina had no idea. However, she did not dare ask as she readied another arrow in case the man with the katana wanted to attack Largo again; the berserker was busy blocking and attempting to rain blows on the ninja with the bo staff. The ninja with the katana got up and went back to attack Largo, but each time Lina let loose an arrow which would send the man flying into the nearby wall. By this, the fight eventually got into the center of the arena, which would fare well for everybody.

By the time Largo and his opponent had gotten into the center, Largo had much of the upper hand despite having the larger weapon; it had something to do with the fact that the ninja was doing too much to dodge the axe the berserker held in his hands. This gave Largo an advantage over the ninja.

However, after one block of a particularly hard blow on Largo's part, the ninja with the bo staff managed to knock the berserker onto the ground. Afterwards, he unloaded on the berserker. Lina, seeing this, grabbed an arrow and knocked the man with the bo away with one shot; however, the katana man weakly stood up and stumbled to Largo to finish the work of the man with the bo staff. Largo stood up quickly and knocked the man with the katana into the wall with the sharp side of his axe, effectively knocking the man out.

Upon seeing this, the man with the bo staff became enraged and ran after both of them; however, Largo ran towards him first to join the fray, only this time Lina was not needed to keep the other man from overpowering Largo, so the girl fired arrows at the ninja. By this time, though, he could tell that Lina had a nearly impeccable aim, so whenever he saw an arrow headed in his direction he leapt out of the way. Largo went crazy on the ninja, swirling his axe overhead as the ninja repeatedly blocked and was given no opening to attack.

Finally, Largo managed to knock the bo staff away, after which the ninja was forced to go to Largo very close; however, he had failed to notice that the axe was still swinging. Thus, when he collided with the wood he was surprised as he flew. There, he met one of Lina's arrows, and then his head hit the wall as he blacked out.

Lina panted as the match ended. All of the running around the arena she had to do made her a little tired. Largo walked up to her, equally tired from the intimate duels with the opponents.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner!" shouted the announcer. "Give a hand for Lina and Largo, everybody!"

The audience went wild as they stood and cheered for the victors of the first match.

* * *

Elise was busy wiping the counters after lunch. A lot of people had stopped by on that particular day, so she had a lot of cleaning to do. She had just finished washing dishes, and she had gotten to cleaning tables afterwards. 

Owning an inn alone was very hard work sometimes.

The bell that Elise had positioned at the door rang as it opened. She looked to find Lina and Largo back at the inn.

"So how'd it go?" asked Elise.

"We won!" said Largo.

"Really, now?" asked Elise. "That's wonderful!"

"Yeah!" said Lina. "Lina feels much better about winning now!"

"I bet you do," said Elise. "Anyways, how about a celebratory lunch?"

"Actually, I was thinking about going to that place you mentioned last night," said Largo. "I want to test that theory of yours as a celebration drink…"

"Well then," said Elise. "Let's see how that goes, yes?"

"Of course," said Largo. "I think I better get some rest for tonight though."

"Go right ahead," said Elise. Largo went up the stairways afterwards.

Lina, who had been tap dancing all over the floor, suddenly stopped as Largo went upstairs with an expression of curiosity taking over.

"What about you, Lina?" asked Elise. "Would you like a celebratory lunch?"

"Of course!" said Lina, smiling quite suddenly at Elise. "Gimme some fruit, please!"

"Fruit it is!" said Elise, whipping up the cutting knife as she said this.

* * *

Men sloshed around in half-drunken states as they sat next to girls and ordered the said girl drinks. Some men went outside, arms wrapped around the waists of the girls they had picked up, and the men that had picked up the whores went upstairs. The two bartenders went about their business as best as was possible at such a busy time of night, and women sat in wait as they waited for men. 

For Antonia, it was another night at the same bar with nobody interesting. She was neither a whore nor a bartender; she was a bystander who watched the events of each night unfurl. For three years nothing eventful happened under the watch of her penetrative jade orbs that people called her eyes. For three years, nobody had noticed or cared to notice the chocolate hair that melted into streams with every body motion.

For three years, she had gone unnoticed by anybody.

She usually shook her head after every night; she felt her purpose was in destiny's hands entirely. She could not help but feel that by going to the bar she would eventually run into her destiny.

However, for three years she never had. She never gave up hope of this being true, but she was unknown by most of the patrons.

Antonia figured that it had something to do with the other women; the men came to the bar to find a decent woman to make love to, and any relations after that were nonexistent. The young woman knew that her destiny was not such, but she waited for the man who would sweep her off of her feet.

As of then, there were many couples on a dance floor, with some sitting at the counter. Antonia sat in the shadows of a booth, with many more women waiting there.

The door opened, and Antonia knew that another man had entered.

When the unoccupied girls looked, they were surprised at who they saw.

Into the bar strode a very large man, with more muscles than an average man from the town. He was able to arrive with two belts over his chest and creamy white pants on him. He also had a very attractive face; amethyst eyes peered into nothing in particular. This was surrounded by luscious lavender hair that went into a very short beard of sorts. He looked up as he entered, expecting something.

Antonia had never seen the reaction from the girls following his entrance; upon his entrance, all of the girls without a man screamed in such exotic ways upon noticing how attractive the man was, and they all crept towards him and gathered around in a circle.

"Ooh…" said one with teal hair and lemon-colored eyes. "He's the handsomest catch around here…"

"You're telling me…" said a second woman with eyes the color of wood and rough sandy-blonde hair. By this time, the girls had gotten to him and had started to caress him in an infinitely sexual manner.

"Shut it, Arianne!" said a third woman, this one with hair the color of the oceans and eyes that sparkled of diamonds. "I call dibs on him first!"

"And what do you know of calling dibs on this guy?" asked the first woman. "I'm sorry Melisande, but you need more experience in calling dibs."

"You've never gotten any catches like this, Bellangére," said a fourth woman with obsidian eyes and hair of the exact same shade. "I suggest you back off before you lose another good one."

A fifth one simply looked at him wildly, then shook her head wildly at the fourth woman.

"Oh, come on Alladine," said Melisande. "You can't be serious, can you?"

"I suggest you keep your trap shut!" said the fourth woman. "You know how poor Alladine can't get her way with a man. Maybe this time she'll be lucky."

"Forget her luck, Selysette," said a sixth woman, eyes staring in wild shades of lavender with hair that flowed of a constant river of white sand. "Maybe she would get men if she could talk."

"Now, now, Judith, let's not forget what happened last time you did that to Alladine," said a seventh one who wore flaming hair on her head with eyes of a searing amethyst. "Ygraine thinks that you were too hard on her."

"Girls, girls!" said the man as he shook all of the women off of him. "I feel uncomfortable here. At least give me some room to sit!"

The girls, all startled at this, promptly leapt off of the large man, returning to their stalls in shame. This gave the man time to look at the individual booths.

Antonia did not expect the man to walk to her table and sit next to her. The young woman was taken by surprise, but she kept staring forward.

"Hello there," said the man. "Why are you silent here?"

"I guess I just am," replied Antonia. "After all, nobody notices me these days."

"Well I must have noticed, since I saw you right when I walked in," said the man. "I'm Largo, by the way."

"Antonia," said the young woman. The waiter came up to the two of them. Largo ordered drinks and the waiter left the two of them alone.

"Antonia…" said Largo broodingly. "That's a lovely name."

"You really think so?" asked Antonia, who blushed a little as the comment escaped Largo's lips.

"Yes," said the burly man.

"Thank you," said Antonia. "Nobody ever told me that in my life…"

"Well, I take great pride in knowing that I'm the first one to say that," said the berserker. "You stand around here all the time?"

"I've been doing so for three years now," said Antonia.

"Why would that be?" asked the larger man.

Here, the young woman was not sure what to do. She did not feel he was worthy of finding the truth, but he was also very friendly by how he had been talking as of then. She decided to keep her mouth shut about her talk of destiny.

"I am not sure, actually," she said.

"Well, that makes things interesting," said Largo.

"And you are here for what?" asked Antonia.

"I'm participating in the tag tournament," said Largo.

The young woman sat up abruptly as he said this.

"Are you serious?" asked Antonia.

"Yes," said Largo. "In fact, me and my companion won the first match earlier this morning."

"Oh!" said the young woman. "This is great. I just made myself look stupid like this."

"No, actually," said Largo. "You don't look like the arrogant type at all."

"Really?" asked Antonia.

At this point, the waiter got them their drinks and walked away, leaving a slip of paper behind with what Largo had to pay.

"Of course," said Largo as he grabbed his drink. "I've met many who are more arrogant in their first impressions."

"Well, I'll say that you are a nice man," said Antonia as she picked up her refreshment and drank. "You certainly do give good complements."

"Many people tell me that," said Largo. "Me? I am not so sure of some things myself, actually…"

"Why not?" asked Antonia.

"I simply never am," said Largo. "I don't know why."

"Well, I could—"

"Not tonight," said Largo. "I'm not the kind to get into the dirty stuff."

"Well, we can't stay here long, so why don't we go talk outside after we pay?" asked Antonia.

"Sure," said Largo, producing a pouch full of coins that Antonia figured he had earned at the festival earlier in the day and dropping a few coins on the table. "Come on."

The two stood up and exited the bar, with the other seven girls looking on jealously.

* * *

Elise cleaned dishes after dinner, with Lina sitting at the counter telling her stories of her adventures with her friends. 

"And then, the evil guys that were flooding the place left after turning the wheel, and then we went upstairs and killed the head demon of that place!" shouted Lina. "And then, Ein walked in on Serene and Cierra in the springs while they were bathing with a bunch of other girls."

"Really, now?" asked Elise. "I wonder how they reacted to that…"

"Well, Serene got so angry she slapped him around a bit!" said Lina. "You should have seen the poor guy get slapped by Serene. He was literally bumping against walls!"

"That has to hurt," said Elise as she wiped the last dish and set it under the counter for tomorrow's meal. "I wonder why…"

"Well, Serene never liked guys watching her when she took a bath," said Lina. "It sort of served him right!"

At this moment, Largo entered the inn through the side door, face with a happy expression.

"Yay!" shouted Lina. "Largo's back!"

She leapt off of her seat on the counter and ran to Largo. She then hugged the berserker's legs as he chuckled and patted her head.

"Of course I'm back!" said Largo. "What would you expect of the world's best berserker?"

"So how'd it go?" asked Elise.

"It was as you said; all of the unoccupied girls were after me," said Largo.

"See?" asked Elise. "I told you. Did you talk to anybody?"

"There was this one girl I met," said Largo. "She seemed like a very decent woman, actually. Her name was Antonia."

"Really?" asked Elise.

"Yes," said Largo. "I'm considering going again tomorrow for her."

"Well, that's great!" said Elise. "You have plenty of time to rest now that you don't have a match coming up soon."

"True," said Largo. "We'll see what goes on. Anyways, I'll be going up. Come on, Lina!"

"Good night, Elise!" said Lina.

"Good night!" said Elise as the two figures dissapeared behind the doorway.


	8. Chapter 7: Prison Break

Finally, I get around to updating this. God, I haven't updated it since the festival ended. 

Well, school starts on Monday, which unfortunately doesn't help my productivity here. Poor me. 

I don't have a whole lot to say, so I'll give you the chapter. Enjoy! 

* * *

Chapter 7: Prison Break

Leonardo stood in a dark cell, staring out of the bars that were the window. Snake sat close to the door, smoking a cigarette. Other than the light of the cigarette, the only light was an electrical light in the hallway, and even then the cell was still dark. The fact that dark clouds hung ominously in the sky above them did not help much either.

After being captured in the attack on Nasrad, Leo and the gang had been separated. Fina was apparently going to the empress, and Aika was being held in a different cell from them. Leo figured that Fina would get out of the fair uninjured since she was going to the empress of Valua, but he knew that for himself, Snake, and Aika the chances of getting out alive were pretty slim. Sooner or later they would die, whether from lack of food, water, or getting their heads chopped off in the so-called Coliseum where criminals were executed. Either way, it would take a miracle to get out.

For the turtle, the silence was unbearable. Apart from the very occasional lightning bolt that rained down from the mass of black that hovered over them, it was silent in the cell, and over time Leo's ears had begun to ring because of the lack of sound waves in the vicinity.

Finally, he could not take it anymore, and thus he spoke.

"So what do you think happens now?" asked Leo.

"You said it yourself before you surrendered," said Snake. "We'd die either way we went. It's a lose-lose situation for us right now…"

"Yeah…" said Leo. "I hope Aika and Fina are okay."

"We can probably see Aika again when we go to the Coliseum," said Snake.

"It's Fina I'm worried about," said Leo. "I mean, the empress can have her way with her, and it will be bad for all of us if we allow her to be killed. I want to break out."

"So do I," said Snake. "I still can't believe they took my lock pick away."

"Couldn't you have hid it under your tongue?" asked Leo.

"Under that much surveillance?" asked Snake, who stood up as he talked. "No way. There was no way I could have done it then."

"Well, then…" said Leo. "I guess we wait…"

And then, the silence settled in once more, broken a few minutes later by the sound of a distant elevator door opening somewhere.

Snake's ears perked up, and Leo looked in the direction of the sound. He then turned from his position and walked to the prison door, long cloak flowing around him as he did.

A shadow slowly appeared on the floor in front of the cell, and it shrunk as the occupant got closer.

Finally, the owner of the shadow appeared, flanked by two guards. It was a rather thin man decked in royal outfit (Leo never knew white could look so royal on anybody) with a circular hat perched on his golden hair. Something in his appearance suggested a feminine quality not common in men, but Leo was pretty sure that he was male.

"Here they are, milord," said a guard.

"Thank you," said the man. "I should like to enter."

Leo had an urge to barge out of the cell then, but he felt it went against decorum when prisoners received guests, so he remained as a guard silently opened the door.

"Thank you," said the man once again, and he entered. The guards closed the door behind him and stood guard outside of the prison.

"And you are…?" asked Snake, somewhat brusquely.

"Snake, I don't think you should address royalty like that…" said Leo.

"No, no, it's all right," said the lord. "I do not mind. You are the air pirates, yes?"

"I think so…" said Leo. "It's fairly complicated."

"Well, I trust that's all right," said the lord. "Anyways, and you are taking the moon crystals for what reason?"

"Well, to keep them away from certain people…" said Leo, making his choice of words careful.

Snake glared at the turtle, then shook his head.

"You don't mind us being honest with what we think about this place, do you?" asked Snake.

The lord looked at the guards, then poked his head out of the cell by swinging the door open.

"Guards, would you leave us alone for a while?" asked the lord.

"But milord, surely you don't want to be in there with a pair of brutes?" asked the guard.

"I will be fine," said the prince. "Give me the keys and I will be out in about twenty minutes."

"Yes, milord," said a guard, after which he handed a key ring to the lord. They then turned around and left the way they came. When the sound of an elevator door opening and closing was heard, the man closed the door and turned back to Leo and Snake.

"No, I do not mind you being blunt," said the man once he left. "I really think mother has her head too far up in the clouds actually..."

Leo chuckled a little.

"Yeah, because frankly, this place sucks," said Snake. "And you are ranked as…?"

"The prince of Valua," said the man, holding out his hand. "My name is Enrique."

"Whoah, hold up!" said Leo. "Why are you so friendly to us all of a sudden?"

"Well, I believe you are doing the right thing," said Enrique.

"Why is that?" asked Leo, perking his head to one side in confusion.

"My mother is vain," said Enrique as he began to pace in the cell. "I wish she would think more about the people than about her quest for power."

"Quest for power?" asked Leo.

"Yes," said Enrique. "She seeks the crystals so she can dominate the world."

"Well, that's a pretty clichéd intention," said Leo. Enrique opened his mouth to ask when Leo continued; "There are plenty of stories from where I come from that have villains that always try to control the world. Of course, they always fail in the end, but they're still pretty persistent."

The prince nodded.

"Makes me wonder why people try to be better than the rest of the world…" said Leo, bringing his hand up to his chin.

"True," said Enrique. "But I know what you mean."

"So you are trying to do something about it?" asked Leo.

"I keep asking her to be concerned with the people," said Enrique. "She always tells me that the troubles of the people are petty."

"I don't think so," said Snake. "Where I come from, we have a document that states that my government is run by the people, for the people, and with the people. If anything, the people come first. I think you could be a great ruler."

"Really?" asked Enrique.

"Yes," said Leo. "And when you asked over and over again, she says she won't change?"

Enrique nodded.

"And so you shooed the guards away so you could start helping us, is that it?" asked Leo.

Enrique's eyes widened a little.

"Well, I must say," said Enrique. "Those were my intentions, yes."

"Really?" asked Snake, dropping his long since burnt out cigarette stub on the floor and stepping on it.

"Yes," said Enrique. "Come outside."

The prince opened the door, and Leo and Snake followed as Enrique turned around and locked the door behind them.

"So what are we going to do now?" asked Leo.

"You two go retrieve your friends," said Enrique. "I will be waiting outside for you."

"Right," said Leo.

"By the way, I never was given the pleasure of your names…" said Enrique.

"Oh!" said Leo. "Sorry! I'm Leonardo, and this is Snake."

"Snake?" asked Enrique. "Isn't that a rather strange name?"

"It's a codename," said the FOXHOUND agent. "I know what you're thinking. No, I don't work for any country here. It's complicated."

"All right," said Enrique. "I will prepare my flagship. When you retrieve your friends, meet me on the side of the gate facing outside of the mountain basin."

"And where is it?" asked Leo.

The prince pointed at a slit a few yards away.

"I believe your friends are on the other floors," said Enrique. "Be careful; guards are positioned everywhere."

"Right," said Leo. "Thanks for all the help!"

"It is my pleasure to help you two," said Enrique. He bowed, and walked to the elevator.

"So who do we get?" asked Leo.

"Well, we are both fairly good at stealth," said Snake. "However, I don't have my lock pick with me, which means I won't be able to get Aika out of there."

"You can shoot the lock, though," said Leo. "Right?"

"Yes," said Snake. "I think we should get our weapons before moving on."

"Agreed," said Leo. "You go after Aika. I'll find Fina."

Snake nodded, and the two of them went to find their weapons and their friends.

* * *

A vast sea of black covered the skies above them, ships standing in wait in front of a gate ready to move once the gate moved to let them in. 

Fina had beheld this sight for what had seemed to be hours. The only other person in the room happened to be Ramirez, who watched the woman from the corner of his eye to make sure that Fina would not get clever and pull a trick or two on him.

It was not as if Fina could pull any tricks on him anyway, though, for a mysterious thought pervaded Fina's being as she stood at the window of the room she was in. She did not give voice to it for a long time, and yet she really wanted to ask why Ramirez had sided with Valua.

Finally, though, the silence became unbearable, and the girl opened her mouth.

"Ramirez…" she said. "Why…?"

The admiral simply closed his silver orbs.

"People are greedy in this world," began the admiral. "They only talk about their foolish trifles, and in the end they forget what is important to them. You would do well to know that, Fina."

With this, Ramirez left the room. Whatever he told the guards outside was covered by the door as a series of unintelligible mutterings came from the other side of it.

Then, another silence. Fina decided to sit in a chair, as her legs were beginning to hurt from standing for such a long period of time. She was not tied and she had no real ideas of escaping, so she pulled a chair from its spot on the large table that laid in the center of the lavishly decked out room and sat, looking at the room as she did.

Red and black designs adorned the room, with several seats along what looked to be a banquet table positioned in such a position. She really did not care about the designs.

She did not try to escape because she knew she was overpowered by the guards.

However, it also had to do with the fact that she knew somebody would come for her eventually, and that somebody would probably be Leo or Snake or maybe even Aika. Ever since Vyse and Aika had rescued her the first time she was held captive by Valua, she had begun to trust those that she had met, and she was sure that the trust would be followed through by one of them to the point that they would rescue her.

A few minutes later, groaning sound from the other side of the doorway startled her. She turned her head and abruptly stood up as a second groaning sound came from within.

Suddenly, the door opened, and a man in a cloak with bloody swords in either hand walked in.

"Leo!" said Fina, instantly recognizing the swords to belong to Leo.

"Fina!" said the turtle in response. "You're okay!"

Fina walked up to Leo.

"You're okay…" said Fina. "I'm so glad!"

"I know," said Leo. "Some royal guy who thinks the empress is being to vain set me and Snake free so he could help."

"Really?" asked Fina.

"Yeah," said Leo as he approached the door. "Come on."

"Wait," said Fina. "Where's Snake?"

"Snake went to go find Aika," said Leo. "We shouldn't wait here much longer."

"Right," said Fina as he walked to the door and took Leo's hand.

As they walked down the hallway, she could not help but notice the guards in the room were laying on the sides of the door in a sleep that seemed too heavy to be roused by anything.

"Are they…?" asked Fina.

Leo shook his head.

"It's not the way of the ninja to kill a set of guards unless they are your target," said Leo. "I knocked them out so they won't get in our way later."

"What's a ninja?" asked Fina quite earnestly.

"Well, it's a kind of warrior from my world," said Leo. "They follow a code of honor and use the shadows to their advantage."

"Really?" asked Fina. "That would be interesting to see…"

"It is," said Leo as they exited the hallway into what looked like a maintenance route.

Nothing more was said as they went down the maintenance route until they wound up outside, looking upon the black sky and the ships that stood like an omen waiting for the gates to open.

"By the way," said Fina as they boarded a lift close to where they were. "Thank you for saving me…"

The mutated turtle looked at Fina, a small little sparkle in his eye.

"No problem," said Leo as he pulled a switch which subsequently sent the lift downwards. "You know, you don't seem to mind the fact that I'm a mutated turtle."

"I don't," said Fina. "I have seen things during my childhood which many in this place would never even imagine of, and there are many things in this place that I have never seen up there. I guess you get used to unusual things after being in a world in which everything is unusual to you."

"I see…" said Leo. "Me? People start running and screaming whenever they see somebody like me. I'm forced to live underground with my family because of it."

"Really?" asked Fina. "You have a family?"

Leonardo nodded at this question.

"It's a complicated story," said the turtle. "I think I'll talk about it another time."

Fina nodded.

After this, the lift arrived at its destination, and the two stepped off of the lift and proceeded to walk forwards.

* * *

"Hey! Get off me! Put your shirt back on!" 

"Oh, would you think I would get off if you're my type of girl?"

"Jeez! I haven't even been on a date yet and I still think you're doing it wrong!"

Aika sat on the windowsill, attempting to edge away from the Valuan admiral that had walked into her cell and randomly begun to admire her for her beauty. When the Air Pirate had tried to tell him to back off forcefully, he only edged closer.

The man in question was the Admiral Vigoro, also part of the Valuan navy. He had long chocolate hair plastered into a sideways tower on his head, and he wore basically nothing except for his black pants.

Aika could only think about how ugly all that hair on his chest was.

Vigoro came ever closer to the immoveable boundary; his lips almost touched Aika, and no matter what she did to resist his strong musculature would forever hold its place.

And then, Aika felt forbidden territory be violated for the first time as Vigoro's lips perched on hers. Aika was even more repelled than she already was, and suddenly it ended with a loud slap.

Vigoro yelled in pain as he stepped back, hand on the spot where Aika had slapped the man.

"Yeah!" said Aika. "That's what you get for trying to violate me! Now get out!"

"No…" said Vigoro. "You are too beautiful to pass up!"

"Agg!" said Aika in disgust as Vigoro went up to her again.

However, no sooner had he stepped forward then he staggered backwards and forwards. Aika, curious as to what had happened to the admiral, jumped off the windowsill and stood in front of him watching him swagger.

Finally, the man fell forward, a dart in his back.

Aika looked in the direction that the dart was pointed in to find Snake outside of the cell.

"Snake!" she shouted, jumping out of the cell. "You saved me! Thank you!"

"Okay, okay…" said Snake, brushing Aika off of him. "We need to get moving. There will be time for thanks later."

"Hey!" shouted Aika as Snake walked forward. "I don't care what you say! You saved me, and for that I say thanks!"

A short silence came in the room.

"You know, tranquilizer darts don't last forever," said Snake. "He will wake up sooner or later, and you standing here trying to thank me isn't making time faster."

Snake grabbed Aika's hand.

"So unless you want to go back there again with him, I suggest you start moving," he said.

The FOXHOUND agent ran down the corridor, Aika following along.

"What's going on?" asked Aika.

"Apparently, one of the Valuan royals is dissenting against the empress, and helping us is his only method of protest that he feels will work," said Snake.

"Really?" asked Aika. "I'd like to know what rank he is! 'Cause then, I get to see how close he is and—"

"He's the prince," said Snake.

All was silent as they got outside to look at the clouds very closely.

"Well, here we are," said Snake. "The rendezvous point should be somewhere around here…"

He looked to his left and walked forwards in that direction.

* * *

The prince of Valua stood outside of a door that would take them to the docks at the entrance to Valua. He stood, keeping a steadfast eye on the only pathway to the said door to make sure that the correct people were headed in his direction. 

He had stood waiting for the two men he had helped out of the cells for quite a while, but personally the prince did not mind standing there waiting so long as Valuan guards did not arrive first. He had figured they would get the girls and meet him in about twenty minutes, and so far nine had passed.

Enrique stood, feeling the wind in his face. It felt really good to be outside of the oppressive mountains that surrounded Valua every once in a while, and he would have done it more often if it was not for the fact that his mother had to be so vain as to give him plenty of court duties.

However, he decided he would be done with such talk as soon as he helped the Air Pirates and hopefully made a statement to the queen. He figured it might not work, but he knew that if he took chances along the game of life he would get somewhere in it.

Just as this graced his train of thought, a form suddenly landed in front of him so deftly it was frightening. However, upon realizing that the man was one of the ones he freed, the prince sighed in relief as a girl in odd clothing jumped off of his back.

"That was a pretty… disorienting… ride," said the girl.

"I can be known for that," said Leo. "At any rate, here we are."

"Ah," said the prince. "I remember you. I apologize for the actions of my mother."

"Prince… Enrique… yes?" asked Fina.

"Wait," said Leo. "You're telling me you know Fina?"

"Not on a personal level," said Enrique. "I had to stand by my mother's side as my mother interrogated her. I tried to do something to stop my mother from going too far with the Gigas, but now I must resort to this."

"Hey," said Leo. "It's not so bad for you. Try living in my shoes one of these days."

"How could it be worse than a mother being vain and trampling on the needs of the people?" asked Enrique.

Leo opened his mouth to say something.

"Fina! Leo!" shouted an energetic voice from the stairway close to where they were. "You two are okay!"

Leo and Fina looked up, noticing Aika and Snake appearing there. They descended the stairway and met up with them.

"Did I miss anything?" asked Snake.

"No," said Enrique. "Come on. We must get to my flagship."

"Your flagship?" asked Aika as Enrique opened the door.

"The armada gave me my own flagship," said Enrique. "I was hoping we could escape from it."

"Oh, okay," said Aika. "That solves the ship dilemma we've been having for a while…"

"Right," said Leo. "Anyways, let's go. You lead the way, Enrique."

The prince nodded, and the four heroes walked into the doorway.

* * *

The guards stood guard at the only way out of the great Valuan gate into the city of Valua. 

They were supposed to be guarding the prince, but since he had dismissed them, following orders was not much of an issue. The only person they were sure would be able to tell them to go back to Enrique was empress Teodora herself, and even then she never ventured far outside of the royal palace.

Standing outside of the doorway, the guards fidgeted a little as they kept a steady gaze forward. Guarding something was very tedious, and it was usually very precarious work if they happened to find somebody who would spell trouble for them.

So far, though, there was nobody, and the guard on the right side of the door was wondering nervously whether Enrique would come back. He fidgeted with some degree of nervousness, and when the silence was unbearable he opened his mouth.

"Say," said the guard. "Do you think we should check on the prince now?"

"No," said the other guard. "We're under orders, remember?"

"Yeah, but it's been fifteen minutes!" said the first guard. "The gates open in five minutes!"

"He told us to come back in twenty," said the other guard. "Relax. I trust his word. It's probably all in your head."

After this, nothing more was said.

The first guard had a feeling that things were not as simple as they seemed…

* * *

"Well, here we are." 

The four Air Pirates stood in awe of what they saw as the prince stopped in front of his flagship.

It was a grand battleship made of steel that glinted brightly in what little light there was. It was also a very large ship, with a look-out tower and a lot of guns on the bow of the ship. The Delphinus was definitely a great battle ship, and they were sure it would do a lot of things that they had figured it would.

"Wow," said Leo. "That's something I definitely thought I would never see! It's huge!"

"Yeah," said Aika.

"We do not have much time to go," said Enrique. "I told the guards I would be back in twenty minutes, and we have three minutes left."

The other four nodded and followed Enrique up to the gangplank. After the group crossed it, they ran on the bow into the ship itself.

The innards of the ship took on pretty much the same tone as outside, though it was considerably less majestic given the fact that it was a hallway with a set of stairs leading up to the galley. The group walked up the said set of stairs, and they entered a steel door at the end.

They were greeted by something more majestic as they entered. The room was still steel, except now there was a throne at the back with a crimson carpet covering the steps and the Valuan flag standing majestically behind the mix of gold and scarlet that made up the throne. On the three walls facing the front of the ship was a huge panorama, and while the group somehow understood its strategic worth they could not help but admire the view it gave.

"Majestic, is it not?" asked Enrique.

"Very," said Aika. "I feel like I could salvage anything from here! It's all made of expensive metals!"

"Uh, Aika?" asked Leo. "Save that stuff for later. We're on the run here."

"Indeed," said Enrique. "Let us get moving, shall we?"

"Of course," said Aika. "Leave it to me!"

The young girl went up to the wheel and gave it a spin to test it.

"Wow, this is light!" said Aika. "I feel this could be very easy to control! So, full speed ahead?"

"Full speed ahead," said everybody else as they found a switch to get the engines started and did.

The Delphinus roared to life, and then, they left the dock of the Valuan gate. Leo and Snake beheld a large tunnel blocked by what looked like a wall.

Suddenly, the wall shifted, and it swiveled on an axis.

"According to schedule," said Enrique. "Looks like I made my mark well."

"'According to schedule'?" asked Snake. "So you mean to say that you timed it so we would escape right when the gate opens?"

"Yes," said Enrique.

"Wow, you really are helpful," said Fina.

The prince nodded in acknowledgement as the Delphinus sailed forward.

Predictably, nothing happened as the Delphinus passed the only gate barring its freedom from its oppressive home country. The Delphinus then travelled far from the gate of Valua, and finally into the sunlight.

"Yes!" said Fina.

"That makes two times!" shouted Aika, letting go of the wheel as Leo slowed the Delphinus to a stop.

"Right," said Snake. "Good to know we won't be dying sometime soon."

"Yeah," said Leo. "Anyways, Enrique, we can't thank you enough for your help. What can we do to pay you back?"

"Well, I would like you to take me as your hostage," said Enrique.

Leo found himself having to stand on his back leg for support.

"Hostage?" asked Leo. "Why?"

"Because it is my way of saying thanks," said Enrique. "I would like to help you on the remainder of the quest as much as humanly possible."

"Well…" said Leo.

"Uh… Okay…" said Aika. "But us Blue Rogues don't take hostages. If you want to come, you will have to fight with us."

"Really?" asked Enrique. "Well, I think I shall help you fight then."

"Yay!" shouted Aika as she jumped, hand punching the air. "We have a new man on the crew!"

"And a very reliable one too," said Fina.

"So, where to?" asked Leo.

"I think we should tackle the blue moon crystal next," said Fina.

"Over in Yafutoma, yes?" asked Enrique.

Leo almost gaped at the fact that Yafutoma sounded very Japanese, but he restrained himself from saying anything.

"Yes," said Fina.

"I believe we have to travel through something called the Dark Rift," said Enrique. "There is a port close to the rift that used to be occupied by Valua by the name of Esperanza. It was abandoned after attempts to cross the rift were abandoned."

"Why would they be abandoned?" asked Snake. "They could have opened up a major trade route."

"Nobody in history has survived the Black Rift," said Enrique. "Whenever somebody enters the rift, he disappears along with his crew. Nobody knows why."

"Oh dear…" said Fina. "That can be a problem."

"It is," said Enrique.

"Well, nobody did anything by sitting on their butts waiting for things to happen," said Leo. "I say we go in that rift and try!"

"As do I," said Aika as she took her position at the wheel. "So, where is Esperanza?"

"It is on the southeastern corner of the Nasrean continent," said Enrique.

"Right," said Aika. "Do we have a crew, or…?"

"No," said Enrique. "It would be a good idea at this time to recruit one."

"Then we should," said Leo.

"I know a few people who would be crew," said Aika. "Just follow my lead and I'll take you there!"

With this said, Aika turned the ship around and headed towards a small island with a lighthouse shining its guiding beam into the faint yet ever-present darkness.


	9. Chapter 8: Interlude

So sorry! I've been busy! I promise every update after this will be on a regular basis! 

Anyhoos, not a whole lot is going on. If you haven't read my other stories, my school's doing _Carmina Burana_, but other than that there's not a whole lot going on. 

Thou knowest the rest. Here's the chapter. 

* * *

Chapter 8: Interlude

"Hey. This ain't so bad."

"You never know, though. Anything can happen."

"Ya know, ya seem holed up to yerself. Ya mind tellin' me why that is?"

"Logan, we haven't the time for this. We do need to collect an artifact."

"Okay, okay. But don't expect me tah ferget about something little."

Ganondorf sighed and shook his head as he and his companion walked down the corridor.

The king had had an awfully hard time walking around with new companion; he was rather rash and very brusque, and in some cases he threatened the king with violence if he did not answer questions.

However, the king grinned and bared it.

After all, it was better than various other things he had been forced to go through in his life.

The two of them plodded down the hall silently, neither of them saying a word to each other. They had gotten to the Temple of Trees, and they were so far having quite a bit of success with getting into the dungeon. They kept walking to get to the center and hopefully to the artifact that waited for them inside.

Finally, though, Ganondorf opened his mouth to speak.

"Logan, may I ask you a question without being threatened with violence?" asked Ganondorf.

The shorter man stopped, and then he turned to face Ganondorf.

"What's up?" asked Logan.

"Have you ever been judged based on what you've done or what you are?" asked Ganondorf. "People seem to—"

"Heh," said the mutant as he began to pace around. "Ya have no idea. People like me are treated like dirt by the rest o' the world. Plenty o' people would like tah see us taken off the face of the planet."

"Ouch," said Ganondorf. "And your kind? You mean there are other 'mutants' as well?"

"Yep," said Logan. "They're all over the place, ya know. We're… different. That's why they hate us."

"And I thought I had it terrible for me," said Ganondorf as he sat on a snag that was close by. "People judge me for what I've done in the past. I truly hope to change, but I fear for what people would say."

The shorter man chuckled as he walked forward a little.

"Just do what ya think is right," said Logan. "People like me do it every day of their lives."

The king nodded and stood up.

The two of them walked in silence for a long time afterwards.

* * *

Raphael had to walk forward while covering his eyes from the immense shine of the walls that impressed itself on the humanoid's eyes. 

"Damn it, this place is bright!" shouted Raphael. "My eyes are startin' to hurt!"

"You're telling me!" yelled Bowser, also covering his eyes from the intense light. "No wonder people easily get lost in here!"

The Temple of Light was really, really bright, and it had almost blinded the two humanoids when they approached. The walls radiated a huge amount of light, but while it should have been good Bowser and Raphael were struggling to get to the center of the temple.

"Man, I don't know where we're going!" bellowed Raphael as he stumbled forward into yet another room.

"I think we've established that by now!" shouted Bowser. "If we're in another trap room, I'm going to go on a kidnapping spree if I ever get home!"

Raphael simply walked forward, going slowly because of the concentration of the light.

When he walked forward, however, he bumped into a pedestal. Raph dared not lift his arm from his eyes for fear of his eyes exploding due to the concentration of light, but rather, he bent down and picked it up.

"What is it?" asked Bowser.

"It feels like something that you put on your eyes…" replied Raph.

"Well, don't just stand there!" shouted Bowser. "Put it on!"

The ninja turtle did what he was told, and wedged the eyeglasses in between his arm and his eyes, being careful not to lift his arm from the influence of his arm for fear of the slivers of light that were protruding around his arm.

However, when he had secured the eyeglass on his eyes, the humanoid found that the room had gotten excessively dark. He took his arm away, confused at this.

And the humanoid was able to see normally again. The eyeglasses that Raphael had put on darkened the room, and the turtle was able to see darkened walls where there was once light that nobody could see through.

"I can see!" shouted Raphael.

"Don't give me any ideas!" shouted Bowser. "It's still very bright in here!"

"Hey!" shouted Raphael. "At least I can show ya the way through this place! Don't give me that!"

"Okay, okay," said the king. "But first, where the hell are you?"

"I'll take your hand and lead you," said Raphael as he rolled his eyes and forcefully grabbed the king's hand.

Raphael simply walked forward nonchalantly, holding Bowser's hand as he walked through the hallways. Nothing very eventful happened during their walk. Eventually they came across a set of stairs that was very ornate in design. Raphael was unsure what they led to, but he walked up them anyway.

When they arrived at the top, Raph realized from the lack of walls that they had appeared at the top of the Temple of Light.

"Holy crap!" shouted Bowser. "How did we get here?"

"I dunno," replied Raphael. "But I see somethin' square on some rectangle."

"Square object?" asked Bowser. "That's it! That's the relic we're looking for!"

Raphael walked forward, picking up the square as he approached it.

"Man, are we lucky or what?" asked Bowser. The ninja could detect a smile on Bowser's lips.

However, the light suddenly ended, ushering the darkness once again and leaving Raphael in a pitch dark state. The humanoid proceeded to remove the glasses with a perplexed look on his face as Bowser's arm came away from where it had been.

"What was that?" asked Raphael.

Suddenly, the ground rumbled, and the ground began to slowly approach the two humanoid creatures.

"Holy shit!" shouted Raphael. "What's goin' on?"

"I don't know!" shouted Bowser. "But whatever it is, we better jump off of the temple!"

"Gotcha!" shouted Raph.

The two of them ran to the edge of the temple and leapt off, no longer worried about the fact that they would be blinded since darkness greeted them. They landed on hard floor, and they both landed on their feet. They jumped off of another ledge before they hit the sandy texture of the ground and kept on running in the same direction away from the temple.

After they had run away from the rumbling, they looked behind them to find no traces of the Temple of Light.

"The temple disappeared!" shouted Bowser.

"I think we can tell, thank you very much," said Raphael.

"So that square powered the temple…" said Bowser.

"Yep," said Raphael. "Seems like it."

As if on cue, the square slowly accumulated a small light that was enough to light the general area.

"Definitely," said Bowser. "Let's go find the nearest town. We need to figure out what to do next,"

The ninja nodded as they walked on in the endless night.

* * *

Samus approached the entrance of the cave with Fox. 

"Well, here we are," said Samus. "We're back where we started, along with the sacred weapon."

"That's a good sign," said Fox. "At least the guys can't find it now!"

"Yep," said Samus.

The humanoid fox and the bounty hunter had had quite the adventure inside of the cave that was oftentimes flooded. There was water everywhere, and the fact that it was very dark in the cave did not help much; poor Fox and Samus were always stumbling all over the place trying to figure out where the floor was and where the water was.

Eventually, though, they came across a rather large serpent that was guarding something. They figured this to be the relic they were looking for, so they defeated the serpent and managed to get to the entrance of the cave after navigating the entire expanse again.

"Man, am I glad that's over," said Fox. "I think we need to go somewhere to settle down a bit."

"So do I," said Samus, grabbing a handheld breathing apparatus that they had found in the cave. "Let's go."

"I'll take the trident, then," said Fox. "And I go first."

Samus nodded, and she handed the pronged fork as the fox took out the breathing apparatus from his pocket and took the fork from Samus. The bounty hunter then put her own breathing apparatus on as Fox jumped into the water.

The bounty hunter was about to follow suit, but she stopped when she thought she heard a rumbling sound somewhere. She looked behind her, but nothing was happening.

After a few seconds, it subsided, so she simply shrugged and jumped into the water after Fox.

The bounty hunter looked around in the blue expanse she was in, finally emerging from under the cave's entrance to see Fox swimming to the top of the oasis. It had been a long dive, but with the help of a few rocks they had managed to get to the bottom. Now that they had something to breath with, though, they should be fine, and Fox was doing rather well up there.

Samus moved to follow suit when she saw Fox break the surface of the water.

And then, she saw something come down on his head from there. She saw the trident being taken from his hand as he floated into a face-up position in the water.

The bounty hunter retreated back under the cave's entrance in horror, knowing that she should not be seen by whatever had taken the trident from Fox. She did manage to keep herself so that she could see what was going on, though, so for her there was nothing much to do.

Upon seeing no movement after a few minutes, she decided that the intruders had gone away and that she could surface.

When she did, she swam up as fast as she could so she could see if the fox was okay. She failed to notice that the water turned on a slightly different hue as she ascended; she was too busy thinking about Fox to care anyways.

When she surfaced, she looked around to find nobody around the edges of the oasis. She sighed in relief, knowing that she and Fox could both surprise whoever attacked him later once Fox gave her a description.

The bounty hunter also noticed a red cap lying on the shore. When she swam up to it, she immediately recognized it as the cap that Ness liked to wear.

"Yes!" said Samus. "He's around here somewhere! We're in good hands!"

Then, she turned to look at Fox.

She was greeted by the sight of Fox's form floating face-up in the oasis. However, he had been positioned in the worst possible angle for Samus to see.

For from where Samus looked, she could see that Fox was bleeding profusely from his head. No, his _brain_ would have been a better way of putting it; Fox's head had been opened so that Samus could see the organ shining dazzlingly in the afternoon sun. The mark had to have been made by a scythe, as the wound was too clean for comfort.

Samus gasped in immense shock when she saw this.

"Fox!" she yelled. "Fox!"

She swam towards the humanoid out of pure instinct; the bounty hunter knew that Fox was dead before she had even started swimming. However, she still found herself in the middle of the pool.

"No…" said Samus.

Finally, she looked at the direction of the red cap to find a set of footsteps around them that led away from the oasis into an unknown expanse.

The bounty hunter looked in the direction that was notated by the footsteps with teary eyes.

Then, she opened her mouth.

"I'll kill you!" she screamed. "I'll kill you, and your friends! I'll kill them all!"

* * *

Lina sat at the counter as Elise prepared a glass of orange juice for the young girl. Surrounding her were Lloyd and Collette, both sitting on opposite sides of Lina. 

"So you two are hoping to win in this tournament, too?" asked Elise.

"Yep," said Lloyd as his hand sifted through his chocolate-brown hair. "Collette and I need experience for our quest."

"You see, we need to collect a bunch of things," said Collette. "And then, we need to destroy them."

"Destroy them?" asked Lina. "Why?"

"The things in question are dangerous," said Lloyd as Elise set the orange juice in front of Lina and immediately went to work to get Lloyd and Collette's drinks. "They steal people's souls and turn them into monsters."

"Ooh," said Elise as she bent down for some glasses. "That's pretty damn harsh."

"Lina agrees!" shouted the girl, raising her fist in the air. If it was not for the fact that Lloyd had grabbed the glass in time, Elise would have had a nasty surprise on the floor on her side of the counter.

"Yeah," said Collette. "I'm so sorry for tripping all over you earlier, Lina!"

"Hey, don't worry about it!" said Lina. "That's the tenth time you've apologized! Lina's already forgiven you!"

Elise chuckled good-naturedly before setting two glasses of water in front of Lloyd and Collette.

"I wonder how Largo's doing with Antonia," said Lloyd. "She seems like an awfully nice lady."

"I hope they do eventually manage to get something going," said Elise. "They look like they'd be good for each other. I mean, he is a good man, and she is a nice lady. You know what I mean?"

"Yep," said Collette.

"So how was your match today?" asked Elise, facing Lloyd and Collette.

"They won!" shouted Lina.

"Yeah," said Collette. "Our opponents were really rather… dimwitted…"

"Indeed," said Lloyd.

"Lina wonders if we'll face each other at the end…" said Lina, eyes diverted at the ceiling.

"It would be a hell of a coincidence if we did," said Lloyd. "But let's worry about that some other time. For now, let's hope that we can do our best in the next round."

"To victory!" said Collette and Lina, both raising their glasses along with Lloyd.

With a small clang, they brought their glasses together, and then they drank.

* * *

"Well, here we are." 

"Wow, the place is dark…"

"No kidding. If those dark winds have anything to do with it, then I'm so amazed I'm speechless."

Leo shook his head at Snake's sarcasm as he looked forward.

The group had arrived at the port city of Esperanza; this was bathed in a red light, with the Dark Rift being visible in the distance. They were rather surprised at how desolate the place seemed; despite the fact that the city was called Hope in another language, the place reeked of failure. Run-down metallic buildings were seen over a small space, deteriorating wood being visible in some places. The red sky completed the hopelessness of the scene.

"You don't say…" said Enrique, who had been clambering up the stairs while holding his stomach. "Oh, dear, I think I'm sick…"

Leo looked back at the prince as Aika walked over to him.

"Hey, don't exert yourself more than you need to," said the young girl. "I bet you're not used to flying so much…"

"I'm not…" said Enrique. "Oh, I feel sick…"

"Well, if you want to we can always let you stay on the ship," said Fina. "I'm sure Leo and Snake wouldn't mind…"

"We wouldn't," said the two men simultaneously.

"Aika, go help Enrique back into the ship," said Leo.

The young girl nodded and carefully descended down the staircase with Enrique again. Fina looked at the sky, concern in her eyes.

Finally, Leo turned to notice Fina looking at the red expanse of the sky. The humanoid walked up to her and left a three-fingered hand on her shoulder.

"Something the matter?" asked Leo.

The young girl sighed as Snake walked down a staircase, pulling out the group's change purse as he descended the stairs.

"I'm worried," said Fina. "I'm worried about Vyse…"

"Hey, don't worry about it," said Leo. "Worrying like this never solved anything."

"I know," said Fina. "Still, he and Aika have done so much for me on the journey; without them, I would never be at this point with such great support. I can't help but worry, I guess…"

The turtle's hand left Fina's shoulder, eventually settling on the girl's waist as he pulled Fina in closer.

"We'll find him," said Leo. "I'll be he's on the other side of the rift, even!"

The girl nodded as Snake came back up with a burlap bag of stuff in it. Leo looked surprised to see the man with a sack.

"Dude, where'd the sack come from?" asked the turtle.

"Hey, while you two were bonding up here I was gettin' ourselves some more equipment," said Snake. "We'll be needing it."

"True," said Leo. As the FOXHOUND agent walked back down the stairs, Fina looked up to Leo and grabbed his hand.

"So, let's go find out how we get through the rift," said the girl.

"Yes," said Leo. "After all, we did come here to find out how."

Fina led Leo by the hand to a partly dingy building that was visible from where they were standing. Fate was telling Fina that their information rested there.

* * *

"Well, here we are," said Vyse, stopping in front of a rather small bulbous object that rested on the top of a small pillar. 

Markus nodded as he beheld the small object.

They had just gone through the temple of trees to arrive at the artifact. The temple itself had been rather straight-forward; it had involved nothing other than cutting down sick trees to find the path or otherwise planting them to create steps all over the place. Either way, they had arrived at the end of it, and now they were standing face to face with the seed of life.

"So, let's take it and go, yes?" asked Markus.

The pirate nodded and picked up the seed. It gave off a healing aura as Vyse took it into his hand, and the glow remained.

Vyse stored it in his pocket, and then he nodded to Markus. The two of them walked out of the room, squeezing into the narrow passageway that they had had to cut for themselves.

Upon entering the adjacent hallway, Vyse noticed nothing and walked forward. He looked around as he walked, finding nothing with which to fancy his eyes.

However, Markus cautiously took out his blaster and walked forward, following the young pirate as he did.

They walked down the hall without much ceremony. However, when they climbed the somewhat curved stairway they had planted to get down to the next level, Markus' trained ears picked up some sound from beneath and he grabbed Vyse's arm without much thought.

"What are you—?" asked Vyse upon being pulled back.

"Sh!" commanded Markus. "You idiot! There are people down there!"

However, the information registered in the pirate's head too late, for his boot was still sticking out of the wall.

"Who goes there?" asked a domineering voice from outside of the hall.

"Oh, damn it," said Markus. "Now we can't get out with this thing."

Vyse smirked trickily and prepared his foot to jump.

"No," said Vyse. "You don't think so. But you forget that we always have the Blue Rogue's way of doing things, and that is never to give up!"

"What are you—?" asked Markus.

He had no time to finish, for Vyse broke free of the man's arm and bounded off of the staircase and over the curve just as a white orb grazed the spot where his foot used to be.

"Oh, yeh think that's funny, eh?" asked a second voice. "Come over here, pup!"

"Gladly!" shouted Vyse as he jumped forwards.

By this time, Markus had prepared a bunch of rounds, and upon walking back on the stairs, he found Vyse in battle with a rather short man in black hair.

"Insolent fools!" shouted the voice of what Markus realized belonged to a dark-skinned man a ways from where he was on the stairwell. "You can never beat us!"

_Yeah, but you're part of the organization,_ thought Markus. _We'll win no matter what._

With the words the man spoke, he hurled another ball of what Markus realized to be pure energy. He leapt out of the way before it hit him, though, but it sent him tumbling to the ground below as the amazement over the conjuring of the balls got in the way of his footwork.

Meanwhile, Vyse was having a rather hard time beating the man he was facing; the man was very ferocious, and the pirate could not help but notice that every time he cut something on the man it always seemed to heal too fast for it to be real.

However, the pirate kept the slashes going at the man as he parried with blows from what Vyse realized were his claws.

Markus immediately got up from his position, and he had time to dodge another ball that was headed in his general direction. Being mindful of Vyse's location in the hallway, he let loose a round of energy beams in the direction of the dark-skinned man, successfully stalling his spell casting as he dodged the energy balls.

As Markus yelled while he opened fire, the pirate did get a little distracted by the spectacle. However, he somehow managed to stay on task against his opponent as he avoided attack after attack at him. However, the sight of Markus running around recklessly trying to hit Ganondorf was very distracting, so Vyse did blunder in some places.

Eventually, though this Vyse managed to tire out the man enough to knock him out with the hilt of his cutlass (though by that time, Vyse almost felt like dropping dead on the ground due to the fact that he himself had to use quite a bit of energy to fell the man), and Markus scored a hit on the ground that the dark-skinned man stood on, and the dark-skinned man was flung in the air and knocked out against a particularly strong branch in the canopy of the temple's trees.

When this was said and done, the pirate looked at the commander nervously, weakly raising a thumb up to denote that he was okay.

"I told you we could do it," said Vyse tiredly as Markus walked to the pirate.

"Yeah," said Markus. "I guess you were right. But you're in no condition to walk around right now, either."

"True," said Vyse weakly, collapsing against Markus' being, dropping his cutlasses from where they had been in his hands.

The commander picked the weapons up, then supported Vyse with his arm.

"We better get out of here," said the larger man.

As Markus exited the temple, Vyse closed his amber eyes to the world, and the commander smiled a little as Vyse's light snoring permeated the otherwise silent air.


	10. Chapter 9: Hope

Hello, children!

So here I am with another update. Let's disclaim since some new stuff appears:

Dead or Alive does not belong to me; it belongs to the guys at Tecmo and Team Ninja.

We all know what happens next, so let's get started already!

Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 9: Hope

Serene and Ness walked along the desert pathway, the boy holding a trident as they triumphantly marched down the road.

"Man, that was easy!" gloated the young boy. "That guy that surfaced from the water never saw it coming!"

"Yep," said Serene as she walked around. "I do need to clean my scythe, though. Everybody will notice the blood."

The two of them had decided to hunt for artifacts, and they had managed to nab a trident by fatally wounding somebody who has swum to the surface of an oasis with the artifact. It was child's play attaining the thing, really; they just had to wait for him to surface.

"I know, right?" asked Ness. "Why didn't you clean it there?"

"Because I was scared somebody would come by," said Serene.

"They would have understood, though," said Ness. "I mean, they were part of the organization, so all we have to do is tell them that they're trying to end the world and we're home free. You know?"

"Yeah," said Serene, seeing an oasis somewhere off of the road. "Come on. We can probably wash my scythe over there."

The boy nodded and walked over to the oasis that Serene pointed out. They arrived there, and Serene dipped the blade of her scythe into the water. The oasis was not that deep, so the red still showed, but the purified blue blade came out of the water as if nothing had ever happened.

"There," said Ness. "We got away with murder. Now what's up next?"

"The Gem of Parnassus, that's what," said Serene. "It should be in a temple somewhere."

"Asking time again?" asked Ness.

"You bet," said Serene.

The boy rolled his eyes and sighed as he walked back to the road, Serene following closely behind.

* * *

"Shut up!" 

"No, you shut up!"

"You said it first! You shut up!"

"No, you shut up!"

Frank Castle felt like plugging a few bullets into his friend again. They had successfully gotten into the canopy of a very high tree that was apparently the place they needed to go. However, once they were inside they were confronted by a bunch of villainous guards that were storming the place. Castle wanted to run in there and gun every last one down, but Falcon was more towards being cautious about it. Finally, it had erupted into a whisper fight between the two of them.

"Look, it's not good to be that reckless," said Falcon. "I know what I'm saying."

"And I say my method works more than your method ever will," replied Frank. "It's worked for me, so why should it not work now?"

"Because we could be dealing with a hell of a lot of reinforcements," said Falcon. "Look, I know that your method works best, but we also need stealth."

"Then go down there and mow them down so we don't get people on our tail!" exclaimed Frank. "Meanwhile, I gun down these people over here."

"Okay, okay!" said Falcon, finally deciding that enough was enough and that they really had to accomplish something before they were found. "Give me a weapon."

Frank inwardly exhaled heavily as he handed a semi-automatic rifle to Falcon along with a silenced pistol.

"Go," said Frank. "I'll open fire when you're off of the floor."

The captain nodded, and he took off, darting amongst the green walls and the crates with skill as he successfully avoided the guards and eventually got to a hole on the other side of the floor.

Frank waited for a sign, but he managed to see Falcon going down into the hole.

The Punisher smirked coyly as he prepared to stand up, two semi-machine guns at the ready.

"You're all goin' to hell, bitches!" yelled the man loudly.

The guards had no time to react before Frank stood up, jumped on a crate, and opened fire on the entire group, killing every last one of them as he stood there twirling around.

* * *

Aika turned the wheel somewhat nervously, right in front of the rift that was supposedly uncrosseable. Fina paced nervously on the metal floor as Enrique leaned over one of the control panels, holding his stomach in place with Snake attempting to be steady. Leo stood right next to Aika, ready to direct a change in velocity in the blink of an eye. 

"Well, here we are," said Leo. "The entrance to the Dark Rift…"

"It's so… intimidating…" said Fina.

"Yeah," said Snake. "But that ain't stopping us from going in. We're going to prove the people of Esperanza wrong, and we're going to do it in style!"

"And hopefully, we can even go through it twice!" said Aika.

"Let's hope we can," said Enrique. "Oh, man, this better not be rough."

Leo retained his stoic expression as Aika hovered in front of the entrance to the rift, but a large part of him had plenty of sympathy for the poor prince. He really wanted to call a halt to the crossing of the Dark Rift because he would not want to trouble Enrique at all. However, Leo also knew that they needed to cross the rift to make history and to go on with their quest. At the end of the day, they had to cross it.

There was a short silence as the ship hovered in front of the Dark Rift's entrance.

Then, Aika put her hands on the wheel.

"Ya guys ready?" asked Aika.

Everybody nodded at this, Enrique managing a nod in his sickness to show his belief in their quest.

"Then let's do this!" said Aika. "Delphinus, full speed ahead!"

* * *

Mario plodded down yet another hallway in his search for his partner in crime. 

"Link?" asked Mario out loud as he walked. "Link?"

The halls received no response from him, but he kept on walking forwards, keeping careful track on the vines in the hallway.

Something that the plumber had noticed as he walked down the temple was that there was an odd capacity of the vines to have a heavy concentration in certain places as opposed to others. Since Mario knew that Link had been taken by a vine monster, it had to mean that Link would be close to him if he followed the concentration of the vines.

It had not been that easy, really. Mario had to break down several walls with a well-launched fireball or two, but otherwise he had been doing a good job.

And Mario was almost positive he was close to Link since the vines were getting very concentrated.

Finally, the vines led to a dead end, and Mario looked up. He then noticed a crack in the mud and held a hand out in preparation for a fireball. Sure enough, a small flame flickered to life from Mario's hand, and then it grew to a rather large size such that it eventually formed to be the size of Mario's hand.

"Ha!" he yelled, rearing his hand back and releasing the newly-formed fireball at the crack.

Sure enough, the crack widened to a large enough size such that Mario could practically kick the wall down. This, the plumber did with a rather quick speed.

The wall gave way to a complete darkness. Puzzled by this, the plumber began a fireball in his hand and walked into the unforgiving darkness, the fireball lighting the way to a very surprising sight.

He was greeted by the sight of a large carnivorous plant sleeping on the other side of a long pit. It slept with a rather loud snore that literally caused the chamber to reverberate, and Mario saw by the light of the fireball that he was constantly keeping in place that Link was on the other side of the pit. The plant had a vine ripped around the sleeping Hylian.

However, Mario also noticed that there was a stranger he was unable to identify. The person in question was dressed in what looked to be a blue ninja dress, long auburn hair falling on the sides of the vine that was holding what was apparently a woman as she snored in her sleep.

_Hm_ thought Mario. _Who's this?_

The plumber walked forward a little, but he realized he had to do something about the vine creature. He decided to steal the Master Sword, stab the creature in the head, collect Link and whoever that woman was, and leave.

As he walked forward, however, he could not help but notice that large vines were gathered in one corner of the room.

Suddenly, the earth-shaking vibrations stopped, and a pair of mauve eyes opened to find the plumber there.

When Mario looked at his foot, he realized too late that he had stepped on one of the large vines.

"Oh, for-a the love of—" muttered Mario under his breath.

His sentence was interrupted by a roar that was multiplied thousands of times over in the small space that was the chamber they were in at that moment in time. The vibrations were enough to wake up Link and the female figure, but neither were fully awake before all of the vines in the room jerked upwards, forming a dome around an angered vine creature.

The vines then shook rapidly, waking both captive figures up fully. Link looked at Mario's direction.

"Mario, get out of here!" yelled Link.

The plumber had no time to reply, however, for a vine would have slammed into him had it not been for the fact that Mario jumped out of the way in time. By the time Mario had jumped, the heat at his hand was unbearable, so he threw the fireball at the large creature. The fireball went straight into the creature's eye, and it flailed around in pain.

In its flailing, it released both of its captives, dropping Link on the side Mario stood on and dropping the girl on the same side it stood on.

Both people promptly stood up, Mario running around.

"Give-a me a light, damn it!" shouted Mario.

A blue light suddenly emanated from the hand of Link, illuminating the room enough to give it a sapphire tint.

"There," said Link. "Happy?"

"Yes," said Mario.

The plumber prepared another fireball as he dodged the tentacles that constantly attempted to take his feet out from under him or otherwise drive him into the ground. There were many close calls as the fireball grew in size, but the girl seemed to catch on to Mario's plan quickly enough to provide a distraction for Mario. This mostly consisted of jumping around and jabbing the said creature to remind it that there was a more immediate threat against it. As the girl jumped around playing its game with the creature, Mario charged the fireball until it grew to a size such that it sizzled most of the tentacles that whizzed past the plumber.

Finally, the fireball was as large as the plumber himself, and Mario smirked as he prepared himself.

"Take-a this!" shouted the plumber as he whirled around and released the fireball on the fiend.

The massive fireball sailed straight for the creature, and the girl saw this and leapt to the other side just as the creature began to burn from the point that the fireball struck.

The creature roared in pain as the vines attached to it flailed around wildly. The girl turned to face Mario and Link, grabbing the Hylian's hand as she turned.

"We must go!" she shouted.

The two other fighters nodded and went straight out of the room, the vines behind them beginning to burn at an unbelievably fast rate.

And as quickly as Link had been sucked in by the creature in the first place, the fire chased the group of three down the corridors, the three of them making it past every jump and break in the walls that Mario had created simply to get out alive.

After what felt like a few seconds to Mario, they finally found the hole that the plumber had leapt into in the first place.

All three of the fighters managed to jump out of the hole and get off of the mud before the mud itself became a mess of flames. When they had retreated into the safety of the nearby forest, the group looked back and was awed at the flames that towered over the spot that the Temple of Mud used to be.

Nobody said anything for quite a while.

Finally, Link cleared his throat.

"Jeez," he spoke. "What the hell was that?"

"I am not sure," responded the girl. "What I do know is that we are safe from its clutches."

"Well, that's-a always a good-a thing, right?" asked Mario.

"True," said Link.

"Indeed," said the girl in kind, azure eyes going in Mario's direction as the girl turned to him. "Link, who is this?"

"Oh!" said Link, clambering in between the girl and Mario. "I'm sorry. Kasumi, this is Mario, and Mario, this is Kasumi."

"Uh, hi!" said Mario, taking the girl's hand in his own and shaking it.

"Pleasure to meet you," responded Kasumi. "I am grateful for my salvation."

"Why do you say that?" asked Link.

"That creature was evil," responded Kasumi. "I was kidnapped by it, and I was taken here to this place."

"Ouch," said Mario, rubbing the back of his head. "So did it-a eat anything?"

"It ate a lot of people," responded the girl. "For some reason, it spared me, but I would have been eaten had it not been for your intervention."

"You're-a welcome, then!" said Mario.

"So you know where to go, right?" asked Link.

"I do not, actually," replied Kasumi. "I believe I got… lost…"

"Oh dear…" said Link. "That's not good."

"It is not," said Kasumi. "In the meantime, though, I believe you had a quest you wanted to tell me about?"

The plumber's eyes narrowed as he looked at Link, instantly knowing that Link had told her.

"Link!" shouted Mario. "You-a know you weren't-a supposed to-a tell about-a the quest!"

"I had no choice," said Link. "I thought I would die in there."

"What, do I have to join now that I know?" asked Kasumi, bending down to Mario's level as she said it.

"You-a should!" said Mario. "We could-a use the help!"

"Well, then, I guess I will join," said Kasumi. "Besides, I have no real home to return to. I will not tell anybody, and you will not tell anybody else you met me."

"Sounds like a deal to me," responded Link. "Welcome aboard, Kasumi!"

The shinobi bowed down respectfully.

"Thank you," she responded as she stood back up. "By the way, you were looking for something, yes?"

The plumber nodded. However, Mario immediately widened his eyes when he saw Kasumi take a scroll off of her being and hand it to the plumber.

"I believe this is what you were looking for?" asked Kasumi.

Mario was shocked, but Link patted him in the back and Mario felt compelled to take the scroll.

"Yes!" shouted the plumber when the shock faded away.

The plumber jumped up in the air, raising his fist as he punched the air in glee.

"Well, with that out of the way, we should probably leave," said Link.

"We should also regroup," said Kasumi.

"True," said Link. "Let's get going, shall we?"

The other two warriors nodded, and then they walked off away from the blaze and into the darkness of the forest.

* * *

"Okay, this is really messed up. Somehow, we're getting through here. But how?" 

"Maybe we're just really damn lucky."

And then a vomit sounded in the area.

All eyes turned to face Enrique, a new puddle of yellowish liquid resting at his feet again. He had not fared well at all in the Dark Rift; every two seconds the poor Valuan was being rocked about by the harsh winds of the rift. He was also finding the urge to vomit a little too tempting, and every so often he did spew the contents of his stomach all over the floor. Nobody yelled at him, though, as they understood, themselves having to undergo the effects of the winds on the Delphinus.

Aika turned back to facing the wall while Leo went in with a mop and immediately went to work getting rid of the puddle and Snake went to work fanning Enrique with a paper fan, Fina standing by and casting Sacri on Enrique for the umpteenth time.

"Oh, man, how long are we going to be in here?" asked Fina when she finished casting the spell.

"I'm not sure," said Leo. "I hope we get out, because this place gives me the creeps."

"No kidding," said Snake. "I've never quite seen anything like it myself."

"Well, the area we're in is rather long according to the holographic map, so we should be stuck here for…"

Aika trailed off midsentence as she stared at the monitor in disbelief.

Leo placed the mop back in the pail as the ship rocked dangerously, using his agility to get to Aika at the wheel.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I think we're almost out of here!" shouted Aika. "The winds seem to be dying down!"

"That's great, but are we on the side we should be on?" asked Fina, also running to the wheel.

"Only time will tell that one," responded Aika.

"So we sit and wait," Leo added, looking at the wind gauge decrease ever so steadily.

Eventually, the ship's rocking stopped, and a small blue window was eventually seen. Aika went for the light, and then they went out of the rift and into a wondrous night sky.

The pressure shutters were lifted from where they had been in the Delphinus' flight time, and the group beheld a glorious night sky.

Fina looked around, eyes finally falling on a large satellite that was visible in the night. Eventually, everybody looked at the said satellite and was awed at what they saw.

When they were in Esperanza, they were under the influence of the red moon.

And on the other side of the rift, a blue moon greeted them.

Aika let go of the wheel and jumped up in glee, punching the air as she did.

"Yes!" shouted the energetic girl loudly. "We crossed the rift!"

"We did it!" shouted Leo. "We made history!"

"I knew we could do it!" said Fina. "I knew it!"

"Well, I guess there is hope for all of us after all," said Snake.

Enrique was not in a disposition to say anything, as he was still trying to recover from the winds of the rift.

The group had crossed the Dark Rift, something that many before them had tried and failed to do.


	11. Chapter 10: Interim Report

Hello, children. What's up?

You all know why I'm here, so I'll just deliver the chapter already. So let's get started, and I hope you enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 10: Interim Report

Vyse sat on the grass next to Markus as they sat in an open field, their legs sore from running such long distances. The hills rolled over themselves in perfect harmony, a sea of grass swaying to and fro in the gentle breeze.

"Man, that was one hell of a run," said Vyse. "I feel so… spent…"

"Same here," said Markus, shifting his position a little. "I can't believe we would have to run that fast to keep somebody from trying to get something we have."

"Neither can I," said Vyse. "I guess they never woke up, though. We should be fine if they can't track us."

"The magician probably can, but I doubt he'll want to," said Markus. "Unless he's that vengeful, I doubt he'll go after us."

"He better not," said Vyse. "Because he'll have to deal with both of us next time!"

Markus nodded and looked in front of him.

"You know, you aren't as bad as I first thought you would turn out," said Markus.

Confused as to where it was coming from, Vyse turned to face the general.

"Why do you say that?" asked Vyse.

"When I first saw you, I figured you would betray me in a dire moment," said Markus. "But you seem to have turned out to be the kind of guy that never runs from any kind of challenge or leaves his friends alone to deal with the problem. You're something of a hands-on guy, and it comes across really well. I'm sorry I jumped to conclusions when we first met."

"Oh, well, that's okay," said Vyse. "I guess I kind of thought you were somebody whose influence would be bad. I don't know. You felt a little too war-torn to be stable for me, but as of now you seem to be able to hold yourself together when you lead. I wish more leaders were like that."

"Yeah," said Markus. "I guess that's true."

"In that case, friends?" asked Vyse, holding out his hand to Markus.

Markus found himself all too tempted by the pirate's offer of friendship, so he took Vyse's hand in his and shook it.

"Friends," said Markus.

The two of them nodded and sat on the hill they were perched on, watching the grass sway.

"We better get moving," said Vyse. "We need to figure out what to do."

"Yes," said a disembodied voice from above. "But first, you must tell me of your progress."

"Huh?" asked the soldier.

Vyse looked up, but no sooner was he able to say anything than a green orb came flying down to them from above.

The orb stopped in front of Markus' face, green brilliance making life harder for both of the two warriors.

* * *

"So, what has happened to you?" 

Samus looked at the green orb in disbelief and anger. She was stuck in the middle of the desert with only a set of footprints to guide her on her journey for revenge, Fox was not around, and the bounty hunter looked especially crappy.

"What does it look like?" asked an annoyed Samus.

"Now, now," said the orb calmingly. "Don't start getting angry at me. I do need to check on your progress. And by the way, where's your friend?"

"He got killed!" shouted Samus. "By an organization member, nonetheless! And, _and_, the organization member in question stole the artifact we had retrieved right after he killed Fox! Does it _look_ like he's around here somewhere? You can see a bloody person from miles around here!"

"Okay, okay," said the orb. "Settle down."

"I'm on a quest for revenge, and yet you tell me to settle down?" asked Samus, the anger in her tone rising. "How dare you. How fucking dare you."

"Wow, settle down!" said the orb. "There is no way I could have killed your friend, so don't take your anger out on me! Sheesh!"

"I'm really pissed off at you!" shouted Samus, pointing her finger dangerously at the orb. "You got me into the mess that I'm in right now, and if I wind up doing it for nothing, I swear to all of the gods in heaven that my quest for revenge will be redirected at YOU!"

"I told you to settle down, woman!" said the orb's disembodied voice belligerently. "Follow directions!"

The bounty hunter huffed and puffed her way through her next thoughts, and she calmed down a little.

"Fine," said Samus. "But I swear to God, and Jesus, and all of the things consecrated by the Roman Catholic church, if I find something out of place or am otherwise deceived, I am going to go right after you! You hear me?"

"I hear you," said the orb. "And I swear that I'm not deceiving you or anything."

"Good," said Samus. "Now, if you're done here, would you mind leaving?"

"Yes, ma'am," said the orb.

The orb suddenly disappeared into the heavens at a rather fast speed, such that within seconds the orb became a dot in the sky.

Samus sighed and sat down. She had been going nowhere with her quest for revenge. She had already tracked the footprints to a nearby desert village, but she was so tired by the time she found the village that she felt that she could walk no more before her feet would swell enough for them to burst.

However, she knew that eventually she would need to get into the town before the person who killed Fox left, so she found the energy to stand back up and walk into the town to continue her quest for revenge.

* * *

Kasumi sat with her back against a tree, Link pacing around with an edge in his step as Mario sat in front of the fire and oversaw the creation of their dinner. 

"So let me get this straight," said Link. "You say you're being chased by a bunch of guys who are trying to kill you?"

"You can call it thus," said Kasumi. "I promise that I will not make it a burden on you."

"It better-a not be," said Mario, his gaze staying at the fire as he spoke. "Other-a-wise you leave."

The young woman nodded.

"So this quest you are on…" said Kasumi. "Is it going to be long?"

"Possibly," said Link, stopping by a tree and turning around to face the shinobi. "If we wind up in the right places, we should be fine."

"Yeah," said Mario.

"In what sense of the word?" asked Kasumi.

"That we won't get random guys going after us," said Link.

"I see," said Kasumi.

There was a general silence for a while as the three of them stood in their positions. They all had a certain edge in what they said, mostly because they needed something to talk about.

However, they were not exactly sure what they were supposed to talk about next. They had talked about the vital things that they would need to know about Kasumi (namely, that she had a friend by the name of Hayabusa Ryu that might be willing to help them if they ran into them and that she was a runaway shinobi), and Kasumi already knew everything about Link and Mario that she needed to know.

After that, there was nothing else to be talked about of importance.

So they sat and looked at each other doing nothing while waiting for dinner.

After a while, Mario finally looked at the meal again, and he gestured that it was ready.

He was just removing the pot from the fire when a disembodied voice spoke.

"Hey!" it said. "I thought I told you not to tell anybody about the quest!"

Kasumi stood up with a start, but before she could do anything else a green sphere hovered down onto the scene.

"Hey!" said Link. "Settle down!"

"Settle down?" asked the green sphere as it jerked dangerously in Link's direction. "But she could be part of the organization!"

"Organization?" asked Kasumi.

"Yes!" shouted the orb as it hovered up and down rapidly in its frustration. "That! You know, the 'let's go screw the world over by collecting the artifacts and wishing for destruction' organization!"

"I believe I have no idea what you speak about," said Kasumi.

"Yeah!" shouted Mario. "Besides, you can't-a say that she is-a part of-a the organization!"

"Mario's right!" said Link. "I got captured by this vine thingie, and this girl was a captive! We ended up helping her out of a sticky situation, so the least she could do is return the favor! Okay? Man, you need to take a chill pill!"

The orb stood perfectly still. However, all three of them could tell by the way that the light had lessened a little that the orb was more than a little flustered at their reactions.

"Okay, okay," it said after a long silence. "She can stay, and if there is anybody she knows that is trustworthy, they can stay too as long as you tell me when I check on you again. But if I see one more person that is not trustworthy, then that person will be put to death. Is this understood?"

Heads nodded all around the sphere in agreement.

"Good," said the sphere. "Now, how is your progress in finding the artifact in the Temple of Mud?"

"We got it!" said Link, his smile piercing the pale green glow brought on by the orb as he held the artifact in his hand.

The orb stayed perfectly still, but if it would have had a head it would have nodded.

"Well done," said the sphere. "Did the girl help with it?"

"Dude, she _gave_ it to us," laughed Link, covering his face with his hand. "Of course she helped."

"Well, then she must be very handy then," said the orb, a slight chuckle emanating from it as it spoke.

"Indeed," said Kasumi. "Now, is there another artifact around here that we can seek out?"

"Yes," said the orb.

"Then what-a is it?" asked Mario.

* * *

"It is the Orb of Halprantran." 

Bowser cocked his head in confusion as Raph sat on a crate, a little annoyed at the orb for taking his sweet time in explaining.

The two turtles had hours earlier stumbled into a town that was populated with people that were afraid of threats from outside; there was still no light in the vicinity (though thankfully they were under a sky in perpetual twilight), and invaders lived to the north of them. They really needed protectors, so they turned to whoever would be suitable for protection.

And when the two turtles found out about this, they had gone into an alleyway to assess what to do next when the orb decided to drop by and give them a hard time.

At least, that was how Raph saw it.

"What kind of a name is that?" asked Bowser.

"Forget the name," said Raph. "Where is it?"

"It's somewhere out of the twilight of this town," said the orb. "If you do wonder away, then you'll find it somewhere."

"It better be somewhere," said Raph. "Because otherwise, we're going to get pissed."

"Yes, pretty much," said Bowser as he sweatdropped.

"I'll leave you two alone then," said the orb. "Farewell."

"Bye," said Raph, waving his three-fingered hand a little as the orb flew up.

The larger turtle than looked at the ninja as he jumped off of the crate. The two of them then began to walk out of the alleyway and into the street, where activity was still bustling amidst what must have been the mid-day market.

"I don't know what to do," said Bowser. "Their cause seems pretty urgent, but we can't abandon our own quest."

"I know," said Raph. "But what do we do?"

"That's a good question," said Bowser. "We'll have to see how—"

"Ah! The Hakusai are here!" shouted the voice of somebody from a far off place within the market.

The yell barely registered in Raph's mind before the people around them began to scream and run around in a trillion different directions. As Bowser and Raphael turned their heads trying to figure out what was going on, people were bumping into each other and into the market stalls that were in the area. Some of the little children were huddled into their mothers' arms, and the young uncontrollable boys were constantly tripping over the discarded goods that lay on the ground of the marketplace.

Finally, however, the commotion disappeared, and Bowser and Raphael were left alone hiding under a jewelry stall wondering what was going to happen next.

When Bowser peeked his head over the counter, he was surprised to find that a group of seven masked individuals had jumped onto the ground of the marketplace, all of them with a weapon in hand. Three of them had swords, three of them had staves, and the only other one had a pair of tonfas in his hand.

"What're these guys here for?" asked Raphael, who had also decided to peek out from under the counter. "And why'd they have Japanese weapons?

"So, citizens of Mokusatsika," shouted one of the ninja. "You still don't have what we ask for? Well then, we shall see who gets it tonight!"

The ninjas then pranced around looking for somebody. However, just as they had begun moving, what looked like a group of three people walked in front of them, seemingly naïve to the malevolent force surrounding them. They were all looking away, and even though the twilight was making vision hard for the two turtles, they did seem to notice that there were a group of a young woman, a child, and another woman who looked a little older than the first person. All colors were obscured by the light, but otherwise Raph and Bowser were able to tell what they were wearing.

"Hey, you!" shouted one of the other ninjas to the group. "What do you think you're doing here? Can't you see that the block party's over?"

The figures stopped walking, and the boy turned to face the ninja that spoke to them.

"So?" asked the boy. "We're just walking around. We don't care where the crowd goes."

"And doesn't it scare you that we're here and nobody else is?" asked a third ninja. "Because we seem to be feared around here."

"Doesn't scare me," said the younger woman. "We don't really know how the locals think."

"Then let's be clear, missy," said a fourth ninja. "Our lord doesn't like this town, and so he sends us to cause trouble. There. Any questions?"

"Yes," said the older woman. "Why are you still here? We can just as easily be capable of kicking your butt around this place."

A few ninjas looked at each other and laughed a little.

"Really?" asked the fifth of the group. "I don't see weapons."

The sixth one took his staff , stabbed it into the soft earth next to his feet, and then made a face.

"'Oh, look at me!'" he said mockingly. "'I'm a little girlie, and I hail from somewhere where only the sissies fight!"

The other six ninjas laughed in unison rather loudly.

However, the laughter immediately stopped when the sixth ninja suddenly stood petrified. They then beheld a card stuck deep in his forehead, and as blood trickled down the mortal wound the ninja fell forward. His katana fell next to him as his descent to the ground finished.

All eyes turned to the younger woman, who so happened to be holding a deck of cards in her hand, a second card in between her index and middle fingers as all noticed an angry energy surrounding her.

"Don't mock me…" she responded simply.

"Okay…" said the first ninja. "Deadly cards, eh? Bring it on."

"Gladly," said the girl.

She then jumped very high in the air, surprising even Raph as she landed on the ground at an attempt to slash a nearby warrior. This, he blocked with his staff, and the other five surviving ninjas surrounded the woman in an attempt to attack her. Then, the attacking started as the other two stepped back and stood still, magic circles appearing under their feet.

For a while she managed to be holding her own against the ninjas as she managed to kick them away from her with her fighting skill. Sometimes, she even managed to land in a couple of card swipes.

However, she did have help from outside; the other two individuals that had been with the woman were casting what looked to be powerful spells that were aiding the young woman in the fight. The older woman always seemed to be casting spells that would heal the young woman, while the boy kept on casting spells that played games with the elements that would manipulate them in ways that they would harm the ninjas.

"Hm," said Raph as the fight progressed. "I'll admit it; these guys are damn good."

Bowser agreed with a nod.

The fight continued for some time without much of a problem, the young woman consistently keeping the ninjas at bay with her attacks.

Finally, though, the ninjas broke some ground when one of them managed to place a hard kick to the girl's chest. This sent her into the air, and a chop from another ninja sent her flying over the stall that Raphael and Bowser were stuck under. As she sailed above them, Raphael saw the features of the woman, including that there was a large bow tied around her waist for some reason that he was not readily able to determine. However, he remained settled when he saw how pretty the girl's face was.

When the woman's back connected with the wall of a house that was close in proximity to Raphael, the ninjas dove straight for her and the two magicians. The two ninjas with katanas went in for close combat against the two magic users, and despite their obvious lack of experience in dodging sword swipes, the two magicians did pretty well.

However, the remaining four ninjas went over to the woman and began to beat her senselessly with their weapons. She managed to get out of the ring that was surrounding her a few times, but no sooner had she gotten to a market stall when the ninjas had caught up with her and began the beating anew.

"My god, I think she needs help," whispered Bowser to Raphael.

"Wait for it…" said Raphael, sais poised in a stabbing position as he came out a little from under the shadow of the stall.

Finally, the woman jumped onto the stall that Raphael and Bowser were hiding under, the ninjas tackling her into the wood.

Raphael took this time to strike; no sooner had the ninjas began the beating than the ninja with the tonfas yelled out in pain as the sai stabbed into his foot.

The beating stopped, and as the ninja grabbed his foot and yelled in pain, Raphael slid out from under the stall and threw the other sai in his face, instantly killing the poor ninja as his form flew back into the market stalls.

All was silent as Raphael was seen in the twilight of the town's sky. Even the older woman and the young boy found themselves staring at Raphael.

After a while, Raph got antsy for action, and finally he opened his mouth.

"What?" asked Raph. "Ya got a problem with somethin'?"

"Dude," said one of the ninjas. "What happened to you? Doujishin spell?"

"Don't know what yer talkin' 'bout," said Raph. "And I don't wanna know, either."

The humanoid turtle then jumped over the stall that had previously served as his hiding place, landing gracefully in front of the body of the ninja that he had stabbed with his sais as he pulled the sais out of his victim.

"Come and get it, bitches," said Raph, his smirk shining with the force of a steel blade in the moon.

The ninjas looked at each other, shrugged, and then all five of the remaining ninjas went after Raph.

Raph kept up a game of keeping the ninjas away, all of Splinter's teachings coming up in his mind as he fought the ninjas. It was really quite similar to beating up some of the local Purple Dragons, actually; the group of ninjas had very little experience when compared to Raph, and so each ninja found himself getting cut by Raph's sais, the blood creating a bloody circle around him. True, Raph did get hit a couple of times, but compared to the beating that the young woman had been receiving he was getting off comparatively lucky.

Finally, one of the ninjas fell onto his knees, and Raph jumped over him so that he stole four ninja stars from the said ninja. As he flipped in the air, he tossed the ninja stars at the other four ninjas, the ninja stars embedding themselves precisely into their heads.

The remaining ninja was scared and horrified by what he saw when Raph landed, and he was so scared he jumped over the stall that Bowser was still hiding under. He had intended to continue running away when suddenly he felt himself fall face-first into the earth.

Bowser finally emerged from under the stall as he picked the ninja up by the leg and held him up.

"And where do you think you're going?" the larger turtle asked.

"H-home?" stammered the ninja.

"Tough," said Bowser. "Because whether you like it or not, you're going to be questioned in the morning. And I know where the police station is."

Carrying the now-captive ninja in tow, Bowser triumphantly made his way to the police station that was just across the street from the market.

As Bowser disappeared behind the door of the police station, Raphael turned to the woman that was laying amazed on the stall.

"You okay?" asked Raph.

"Yeah," said the girl, getting into a sitting position on the stall. "I'm fine."

"Sheena!" shouted the boy as he and the older woman walked over to the stall where Raphael and the young woman sat. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," said the young girl. "I do feel a little dizzy from all of those blows, though…"

"Not a problem," said the older woman. She held her staff up (Raphael had just realized she had a staff with her) and chanted something in a tongue that was beyond Raph's comprehension.

All of the wounds the young lady had acquired suddenly went away, and she smiled gingerly as Raph beheld how beautiful she really was.

"So, who might you be, and what kind of spell are you on?" asked the older woman.

"Me?" asked Raph. "I'm Raph. And I'm not under a damn spell."

"Then why do you look like a turtle?" asked the young boy.

"Because…" began Raph.

He had intended to continue, but he was still confused by why they were talking to him. He was an abomination who had just revealed himself in the streets. By how, they should have been running away screaming at the tops of their lungs.

However, they had chosen to stay.

"Why the hell are you even here anyway?" asked Raph loudly. "Most people would run away at the sight of me!"

"We've seen weirder stuff than you," said the young lady, shifting her position so that her legs dangled over the edge of the stall. "You were saying?"

"I've been like this as long as I can remember…" said Raph. "I'm a mutant, if you must know."

"Hm," said the older woman. "I guess it makes sense if you've been like that all your life. Why do you say people run at the sight of you?"

"Because I'm strange…" said Raph.

"Strange?" asked the young woman, leaning over the stall curiously. "You don't look that strange compared to other things I've seen."

"I guess…" said Raph. "Your names?"

"I'm Genis!" volunteered the young boy almost immediately.

Raph chuckled as the two women sweatdropped. The turtle did like the kid's enthusiasm.

However, the two women said nothing for a while.

"What?" asked Raph upon noticing that the two women looked a little flustered. "A kid can't be cool around here?"

"We were just so… surprised… at how fast he responded…" said the young woman. "At any rate, my name is Sheena, and the other woman is Raine. You know what's going on here, yes?"

"Yep," said Raph. "And I think that this incident is going to make me stay. I think this place needs guardians."

"Then let's team together," said Raine. "This town could use protection against those people, and we seem to be the team to do it!"

"Are you sure, Raine?" asked Genis. "We do have to find Lloyd and the rest of them."

"Yeah, but he saved my life," said Sheena. "The least we could do is return the favor."

"But Sheena!" whined Genis.

"Kid, you can trust me on this one," said Raph. "Just trust me and let's help each other, okay?"

The boy nodded.

"Good," said Raph. "Now we need the input from my friend."

"By the way, who's your friend?" asked Sheena.

"Oh, his name's Bowser," said Raphael. "Nice guy and everything. Just really big and really imposing is all. You guys'll probably like him."

"I hope I do," said Sheena.

Raph sat on a nearby market stall that was next to the one Sheena was sitting on.

These guys were not very annoying at all. He liked them, actually; they hadn't commented on his recklessness once during their conversation.

Now, all he had to do was get to know them and everything would be great.

* * *

"Carmen." 

"Yes, my lord?"

"How is the progress of our twenty warriors?"

"They're doing what they're supposed to do. Some of the groups have expanded in size, but by the same token one person is dead. Most of them have made excellent progress; five of the artifacts have already been found, and only one group ran into any resistance from another group."

"Excellent. Has anybody figured out anything about the setup?"

"No, my lord."

"You do realize that this is very far from how we predicted things would be within the first week, yes?"

"Yes, my lord. I have no words as to how to describe it."

"And neither do I. I shall say, however, that this is an event sent from a divine force. Continue your weekly progress report, and if any of the groups questions you when you check in again, kill the people in that group immediately."

"Yes, my lord."


	12. Chapter 11: Journeys

Hello, children.

_Carmina Burana_ is on on Thursday, so wish me lots of luck!

You know the rest. Here's the chapter, and enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 11: Journeys

Leo stood outside of the guest house, stars glittering brilliantly in the night as the sound of rushing water from far away provided a constant pedal tone amidst the silence. His arms leaned against a guard rail, which would have led into the body of water and subsequently several islands down if the guard rail was not there.

The cloak had gone off in the guest house; Fina, Aika, and Snake all figured it would be a good idea to do so since the cloak had started to feel stuffy to him the day before. He figured it must have been the influence of the blue moon and the fact that they had to navigate a water-filled cave earlier that day. Enrique had not seen him yet since he had fallen asleep when the cloak came off, so there was hope for anybody who had not seen the turtle yet.

However, Leo appreciated being able to stand outside of the guest house without being disturbed by anybody. A lot had happened in the span of a very short period of time that Leo needed to sort out; when they had arrived in Yafutoma, they had been received very warmly by the court only to be asked to fetch the Blue Moon Crystal from a mountain that was very close in proximity to the city of Yafutoma (The Yafutomans named the moon crystal something wacky that Leo could not remember.). They did that, and now they were celebrating.

Compared with crossing the Dark Rift and the fact that not everybody in the court liked them, Leo's mind was filled with things to sort out.

Sure, Leo had meditated time and time again on the subject, but when it came down to it, meditation worked only in confined spaces. Looking out at the stars seemed to work better whenever he was outside of the sewers, and it seemed to be helping him then.

The sound of footsteps on wood detracted Leo from his train of thought, and he turned to look at Fina walking up to Leo, hands on her breast as always.

"Hm?" asked Leo. "I thought you had gone to bed."

"I couldn't sleep," responded Fina, walking towards Leo and standing next to him. "I had these dreams that I could not shake out of my mind."

"It's probably that we've been doing too much in so little time," said Leo, eyes averting back to the stars. "It can frazzle your mind like that sometimes."

"Frazzle your mind?" asked the young girl, confused as to what he had said.

"In other words, it causes your mind to enter unrest," said the turtle.

"Oh," said Fina. "But it was strange, because I was able to see the images clearly."

"And?" asked Leo.

"I think it was a prophetic dream," responded Fina. "Whenever a Silvite has a prophetic dream, we can see the images."

"Really?" asked Leo, turning to face the young girl. "What did you see?"

Fina remained silent, looking down at the ground in dismay.

"Fina?" asked Leo.

"It was terrible," said Fina. "I saw several visions; the first was that there would be a bloody loading in a town somewhere where three dead people were killed through a series of unfortunate events. Then, I saw an even bloodier display where three people got crushed by a pillar and one was hit in the head by a block of debris in a building. Oh, it was terrible. I saw so many visions like this!"

"It's okay, Fina," said Leo, trying to console a now hyperventilating Fina. "We'll be fine."

"I don't know about that…" said Fina. "The second vision I told you about… Vyse was one of the people that got crushed under the pillars."

Leo's head cocked forward instantly.

"Are you serious?" asked Leo.

"Yes," said Fina, the hyperventilation beginning to die down. However, Fina's sapphire orbs shone with tears waiting to be shed. "I'm worried, not just for Vyse, but for the other people. I want to save them, but what would I do to save them?"

"I don't know," said Leo. "But if anything happens, I'll be here for you. I'll do anything in my power to let you help save the world."

Fina looked at the turtle as he pushed off of the guard rail and looked at Fina in the eyes.

"Leo…"

This came out rather softly from Fina before her light frame quivered a little and then stumbled into Leo's arms.

The two of them held each other, the girl crying tears of a mixed combination of worry and happiness into the turtle's plastron as Leo's hand sifted through the sandy locks of Fina's hair.

Finally, they parted, Fina looking at Leo as the wetness slowly departed from her eyes.

"Come," said Leo. "We should go back in now."

The girl nodded as the two of them walked to the door of the guest house.

However, just before they opened the door again, Fina took Leo's hand in hers and squeezed it a little. Leo's gaze fell on the girl's five-fingered hand entwining itself in the rather large three fingers of his own hand. It looked awkward, but for some reason the contact felt really good.

And then, Leo slid the door open in silence, first Fina and then the turtle filing into the guest house as they left the night sky to its games with itself.

* * *

"Okay, kid, tell us what you're doin' here." 

"O… Okay… I'll talk…"

"Dude, settle down a bit. We're not here to kill you if you don't speak!"

"There, there. It'll be fine. Take a deep breath."

A few heavy exhales were heard soon afterwards.

Raphael stood up and began walking around a little, a boy with black hair sitting on a stool with his hands tied behind his back. The ninja they had captured was practically a kid; he looked to be no more than fifteen years of age, and his azure orbs darted around the place repeatedly.

The atmosphere should have helped a little, though, but it did not. Despite the twilight visible from the window, the room was rather well-lit, and cascades of orange and green were imprinted on the walls, forever frozen on the walls to lighten the mood a little.

It must have been the crowd, then. Sheena, Raine, Genis, Bowser, and the chief of police of the town were all there, and Raphael knew that it was a pretty large crowd. Large crowds tended to intimidate captives, so that's what he figured it was.

Plus, the fact that Raph still had his sais with him (albeit sheathed at his waist) didn't help much.

"So, where 're you from, and what're you doin' here?" asked Raph.

"I can't tell you where I'm from," responded the kid. "And I'm trying to save it is what."

"Save it?" asked Sheena. "But why?"

"Because I'm defending it by invading other towns for my boss," he said. "He asks for young men from every village to help expand his vast empire by pillaging other villages and looking for more men with which to invade towns."

Bowser sighed annoyedly, clawed hand going up to his face.

"Look, you really need to protest," said Bowser. "That guy's obviously up to no good. I mean, it _is_ hypocritical that you have to go out and invade other villages to keep yours from being invaded. And yes, I know it's not your fault, but you need to go protest."

"But we're powerless to protest!" said the boy.

"Why?" asked Raine.

The boy remained silent, looking down at the floor instead of facing the group.

"Oh, come on," said Genis, the young half-elf shifting a little in his seat. "We can't help you if you don't tell!"

"But he will kill me…" responded the boy.

"With what? Psychic vision of doom?" asked Sheena. "He doesn't know you're here, and I'm pretty damn sure he doesn't know that your friends died."

"But he has his eyes all over the place!" said the kid, his body language showing frustration at getting his point across. "He has spies everywhere, and if I tell, they can kill me."

"Then tell us who the spies are and we'll make sure they don't kill you," said Bowser.

"No," said the boy. "I can't! I just can't!"

Raph sighed in annoyance.

"Can ya at least tell us your 'lord's name?" asked a rather annoyed Raph.

The boy looked at the turtle, and finally for the first time in the entire conversation, he looked up.

"Kugarejira," said the boy.

"Kugarejira…" said Raph. "And you are?"

"Shinji…" responded the boy.

"Shinji…" repeated Raph.

The turtle turned to face the young frightened boy.

"I'll remember that name if I ever run inta this 'Kugarejira' guy so I can give him hell about it," said Raph. "Got it?"

The boy nodded.

Raph sat back down in his chair, looking to everybody else.

"So," said Bowser. "What are you invading villages for?"

"He says we're looking for the Orb of Halprantran," said Shinji, his frame still shivering.

Both Bowser and Raphael had to concentrate their willpower to keep them from flinching or saying anything about the orb at all. However, they didn't say anything to continue it.

"The Orb of Halprantran…" said Sheena. "What exactly is it supposed to do?"

"He wants to become powerful…" said Shinji. "He wants to take over the place covered in darkness, and to do so he needs the orb."

"And where does he think it is?" asked Raine.

"In a town somewhere…" said Shinji. "I don't know. He doesn't know either."

"Well, we better find it first," said Sheena.

The rest of the people in the room nodded.

"So, is there anything else you want to tell us at this moment?" asked Raine.

"No," responded Shinji.

"Good," said Raph, having just recovered from his catatonic stupor. "Do you want us to leave?"

"I don't have anything else to say…" said Shinji. "That's a cue to leave, right?"

"I guess," said Bowser. "If there's anything you want to ask us, be sure to ask the officers here to fetch us, okay?"

"Okay," responded the boy.

Afterwards, the people filed out of the room, the chief of police unbinding Shinji's hands and leading him to his cell.

* * *

Largo sat at the usual booth again, waiting on Antonia to arrive so they could talk. 

The tournament had been going very well for the berserker and his friend; they were already one of the contestants of the competition that were going to the final round, and when they won the tournament the Rope of Ishtar would be theirs, and the world would be safe.

And he was so happy that he felt he had to tell Antonia a lot. The poor woman had been left out of the blue as to the nature of much of what Largo and Lina had been doing, so Largo decided it was time to tell her everything.

After a short while of Largo contemplating how to break the information to Antonia, the familiar green eyes and the familiar hair sat across from him with drinks.

"Hey there, handsome," said Antonia.

Largo looked up, a smile gracing his face.

"Hey," said Largo. "Look who's a bit springy tonight."

"Yep," responded Antonia, taking her drink off of the tray that she carried their drinks in. "Something the matter?"

"Sort of," said Largo. "Antonia, I need to tell you something."

"What, that you're gay?" asked the young woman, eyes losing some of their light as she asked this.

"What? No!" said the berserker. "That's not what I meant. I meant, 'I need to tell you something about why I'm in the tournament'."

"Oh," said Antonia, fighting back the urge to laugh at herself for assuming too quickly. "What's up?"

"Listen, you know the prize they give, right?" asked Largo.

"Yes," said Antonia, taking a sip from her drink.

"Well, I need it for something else," said the berserker. "You see, Lina and I are on a quest to save the universe from this evil organization that is trying to take over the world, and, well, we need the Rope to save us."

"So after you win, you leave?" asked Antonia.

"Possibly," said Largo. "I wanted to tell you this because of that."

"Do you think I could take myself with you?" asked Antonia.

"What?" asked Largo, a puzzled expression flying onto his face. "But that's preposterous. You're kidding me, right?"

"No," said Antonia. "Something inside tells me that this is my destiny…"

"But Antonia, are you sure?" asked the berserker.

"Of course I'm sure," said the young woman. "And plus, I have a small little combat secret about myself."

"Which is…" asked Largo.

"That I'm a healer," responded Antonia simply.

"Oh!" said Largo. "A healer! Well, that will certainly come in handy!"

"So, am I in?" asked Antonia.

"Of course!" said Largo. "I'll be at your room in the inn in a couple of days to pick you up."

"All right!" said Antonia.

The berserker stood up and walked over to Antonia's side of the table.

"I'll see you in a couple of days then," said Largo, leaving a few gold coins on the tray as he looked at Antonia.

"Bye," said Antonia.

Largo nodded his head before he left the establishment for the night.

* * *

Gilder peered around nervously, trying to zone in on what was going on in the area. 

The dungeon they were in was packed with traps for a reason that neither the air pirate nor the ape were able to figure out. They had just navigated a sequence of traps, and now they were in the room that was supposed to hold the artifact.

And it would have been easy to get if it was not for the fact that there was a huge chasm before their feet.

Donkey Kong just shrugged after Gilder sat down and shook his head.

The ape then ran towards the chasm, jumping over it and landing on the other side to behold the altar there.

Gilder promptly stood up, looking at Donkey Kong as he walked up to the pedestal and removed the artifact.

The ape then threw the artifact across the chasm to Gilder, who managed to catch it as the ape prepared to jump over the chasm.

However, just as the ape was over the middle of the pit, two gunshots went off, both of them hitting the ape and sending him plummeting into the pit.

Gilder turned around to see two men at the door, but before he could pull out his gun to retaliate he felt scorching pains inside of his chest, and he let go of the artifact as he fell back onto the ground.

The two aggressors, who so happened to be Captain Falcon and Frank Castle, then walked into the room and picked up the artifact as the man in the red trench coat fell into the chasm as well.

"Well, that was pretty simple," said Castle.

"I gotta agree that that was one simple fling," said Falcon. "That ape did look familiar, though…"

"Why do you say that?" asked Castle.

"I feel like I saw him somewhere before…" responded the racer.

"It's probably no biggie," said the vigilante, patting Falcon on the shoulder. "We should get outa here before we get caught by those motherfuckers that patrol this place.

The racer nodded, and the two of them exited the room.


	13. Chapter 12: Armor Chink

Wow! I have not posted anything in a while! Sheejus!

Oh well. Here I am now, so, well, you know the rest.

Here's the chapter (Finally...). Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 12: Armor Chink

Kasumi sat herself on the branch of a tree, looking up at the sun as Link tried desperately to catch up from several feet below.

"Hey!" yelled the hero. "No fair! I can't believe you took care of that crap in three bounds!"

Kasumi let out a small light-hearted laugh as Link feigned annoyance as he laboriously climbed up the branches, finally hauling himself up on a branch pretty close to the young shinobi and let out a huge sigh of relief.

"Whew," sighed the Hylian. "Remind me never to climb this high up a tree, ever again."

"I will be sure to do so," responded the shinobi. "I do not see anything familiar around here."

"So we're obviously not back where you started," said Link. "Okay."

"Are you sure Mario will be fine down there?" asked Kasumi. "I don't want anything to get him while he's alone."

"He'll be fine," responded the Hylian. "He's had plenty of battle experience."

"What about experience of battle against an opponent that he cannot see?" asked Kasumi.

"That too," said Link. "In fact, there are some things that he has to kill while he has his back turned to them, so he should be fine."

"Then he should be fine," said the young Shinobi. "Link, I wanted to talk with you about something."

"Yeah?" asked the Hylian, scooting along the branch so that he could see Kasumi in the night sky.

"What if we have been set up?" asked Kasumi.

"Set up?" asked Link. "In what sense?"

"The orb," said Kasumi, and Link nodded.

"Well, I doubt that's the case," he said. "I mean, this orb seems pretty serious, so he must not be shitting us at the moment about the seriousness of the situation."

"I am not sure about that," said Kasumi. "He did take an amorphous shape. And where are the other organization members anyway?"

"They're probably busy getting other artifacts," said Link.

"Exactly," said Kasumi. "And since three of us cannot be in twenty different places at the same time, then by now they should be hunting us down. But I do not see any group of two yet."

"Ooh," responded Link. "That is true. But that doesn't explain why we have to keep silent about our intentions."

"Indeed," said Kasumi. "But what is the probability that we run into some people that we accuse of being in the organization?"

"Pretty high if they attack us," said Link.

"Exactly," said Kasumi. "But what if they have no idea what we accuse them of? My point is that we might be told to shut up because other people like ourselves were assembled."

"And the chance of that happening is what, very low?" asked Link. "Suspicions never got anybody anywhere, Kasumi."

"Well, it is just a suspicion," said the young shinobi. "I am not endorsing it as fact, so I could be wrong."

"Yeah," said the Hylian. "Still, there's a possibility that you're right. A very small one, but that doesn't matter."

"That is a reason why I am hoping to consult Ryu on the subject," said Kasumi. "He would be able to see through the orb's words and tell us what the orb really thinks."

"Ah," said Link. "How does he do it?"

"He is a ninja," responded the shinobi. "He has the capacity to figure it out."

"Okay," said Link. "I see what you mean."

"I am glad you do," said the shinobi. "I think we should go down now. The sun is beginning to set."

"We should, yes," said Link. "Just, don't go so fast this time, will you?"

"Of course," said Kasumi, standing up and preparing to jump down.

The Hylian and the shinobi jumped from their respective branches at the same time.

* * *

Vyse and Markus walked along the plain, hoping to get to their destination. They had left the Temple of Trees very far behind, and they were just now navigating the huge plain that was in between the temple and their next destination. 

It was still a long ways to go before they arrived, so they took frequent breaks.

Just then, they had gotten up from a break and were walking to their destination. Neither of them had spoken, and they both looked rather annoyed at the tall prairie grass that swayed with the breeze. There were a few brambles on Vyse's shirt, and Markus had his own problems to deal with as he brushed the grass away.

"Jeez," said the young air pirate as they walked. "You'd think that this grass would be less annoying."

"You don't say," responded the commander. "And there's no good cover here, either. Which means that if we get attacked, there are no opportunities with which to get the upper hand."

"Yep," said Vyse. "So, we need to get to these catacombs as quickly as possible, right?"

"Yes," said Markus. "But where the hell is it?"

"I don't know," said Vyse. "So let's keep walking."

The two of them remained silent for another few minutes.

Finally, the two of them sat down to rest for the eighth time that day, and they both watched as the sea of grass played games with itself.

"Sheesh," said Markus. "I think we should rest for the rest of the day now."

"You're telling me," said Vyse, rubbing the back of his head. "I'm really tired right now."

"Hell, we're both tired," said Markus. "We need to stop and regroup here."

"Yeah," said the young air pirate. "I wonder what happened to the two guys we left at the temple…"

"They're probably somewhere else," responded Markus. "But still, they couldn't be too far off after the beating we gave them."

"Seriously," said Vyse. "Some people just won't shut up."

"Yeah," said Markus. "You think they'll come after us?"

"Possibly," said the air pirate. "But they don't know where we went."

"True," said the commander, standing up and stretching. "But you never know."

"Yep," said Vyse as he looked at the setting sun. "I wonder how Aika and Fina are…"

"They're probably okay," said Markus as he sat back down. "In fact, I bet they're putting everything they've got into continuing the work without you."

"I hope they are," said Vyse. "I just worry about them being alone there…"

"They'll be fine," said Markus.

Just then, however, a ball of white energy hit the ground next to Markus, and the two of them jumped up, Vyse brandishing his cutlasses as Markus quickly grabbed his gun.

The air pirate looked across the plain, finding the faces of the two guys they had faced in the Temple of Trees staring at them from over a hill.

"Aw, hell," said Markus. "Not those guys again."

Before anything else was said, another energy ball headed in their direction (again, from the dark-skinned man), and then the shorter of the two charged them as the two of them jumped out of the way of the energy ball.

Vyse had just gotten up when he quickly blocked a blow from the claws of the shorter man, the two of them locking blades as Vyse's form knelt onto the ground from the sheer strength of the other man's push.

"We ain't lettin' any organization members get to the catacombs, kid," said the man. "Now git out."

"Wait, organization members?" asked Vyse. "But we're not part of the organization!"

"Yer in a group of two, and yer gettin' somethin', right?" asked the shorter person.

"Yeah, but we're trying to keep it from the organization," responded the air pirate.

The shorter man flinched for a second, surprise showing on his face.

Afterwards, the claws retreated into the man's skin, the air pirate slashing the air as he fell back from the sudden loss of force on his blades.

"Wait," said the shorter man as Vyse jumped back onto his feet. "I don't get it. We were told by some orb that an organization was tryin' tah get some things for a wish or somethin'…"

"How did you know?" asked Vyse. "That's what I was told, by a green orb, nonetheless!"

The two of them looked at each other, then at Markus and the dark-skinned man (who were quite busy sending projectiles flying at each other), and then at each other again.

"Oh, shit," said the shorter man. "Don't tell me."

"I don't think I need to," said Vyse.

The air pirate ran forward as Markus and the dark-skinned man dodged each other's projectiles, and finally came to a stop a few feet away from their fight.

"Guys, stop it!" yelled the air pirate as loud as he could.

Both warlock and commander stopped, and they both turned to face Vyse.

"Vyse, not now!" shouted Markus.

"But I think we've been tricked!" shouted the air pirate.

He broke into a run towards the dark-skinned man as Markus made a run for Vyse, the shorter man following along. After a few seconds, Vyse skidded to a halt in front of the dark-skinned man as Markus and the shorter man both stopped behind him, Markus still holding on to his gun with a grim expression on his face.

"Were you told by a green orb that there were people trying to get artifacts for an evil wish?" asked Vyse.

The dark-skinned man took a surprised look at Vyse, Markus letting his guard down and eventually stowing his gun away.

"It did happen," responded the warlock, hand resting at his chin. "Why is it relevant?"

"Because we got visited by a green orb that told us the exact same stuff…" said Markus.

All four individuals looked at each other, finding confirmation of each other's thoughts.

"Aw, shit," said Markus. "We've been duped."

* * *

"Well, I guess this means that we're together now." 

"You're damn right it is."

"Who would have thought that it was lying to us this entire time?"

Markus simply shrugged.

The group of now four people banded together after realizing what was _really_ going on; apparently, the green sphere had tricked them, and now they banded together to find out.

The name of the dark-skinned man had revealed itself as Ganondorf, and the name of the short man Logan. Vyse would never have guessed that they would be sitting together in front of the same fire later that night on friendly terms.

"Eh," said Ganondorf. "The only question left to ask now is 'why'."

"Yep," said Vyse, laying on his back and looking up at the stars. "Why are we being told this stuff?"

"Yeah," said Logan, also leaning back so that he was supported on his elbows.

"Let's not forget that there's also the who else," mentioned Markus as he sat in front of the fire. "Remember that a scam like this can't work with a small crowd."

"That is true," said Ganondorf. "We do have to find the others and tell them this information."

"And where will we find them?" asked Vyse. "They are pretty far apart."

"After we find the next artifact, we'll go out and find the rest of them," said Markus. "No doubt, they'll believe us since we're a party of four, so it's all good."

"Yep," said Logan. "It makes me wondah, though…"

"What's the matter?" asked Ganondorf.

"What if they git our joining?" asked Logan. "What happens then?"

"I don't know," said Vyse. "But whatever it is, we'll be ready for it."

"Indeed we will," said Ganondorf.

All four of them looked at the sky, wondering what would be in store for them in the future.


	14. Chapter 13: Developments

Boo. What's up?

You know what goes here, so let's start the chapter!

* * *

Chapter 13: Developments

Bowser sat on the ground after he had just managed to walk back Raphael, Sheena, and Genis all following suit as they finally arrived back at the town they were supposed to be protecting.

"Christ," said Raphael, literally falling to the ground face first. "That… was really… hard. Damn Raine… for not… coming…"

"Indeed," said Sheena hoarsely.

All four of them breathed heavily, their battle wounds still shining in the eternal twilight.

The group had had a rather hard fight against a group of ninjas that had been dispatched to get rid of them as they had climbed up the mountain to where the lair was supposed to be according to Shinji. The ninjas had taken a heavy beating and eventually found themselves killed, but the group protecting the village had taken a serious hit, so they had to backtrack all the way to the village so they could be safe.

Through all this, Raine had decided to stay home.

Thankfully, this would help them; since the healer was resting in the town until the group got back, it would mean that Raine would be there soon.

And sure enough, as a small crowd began to gather around them, the older woman was seen pushing her way through the crowd and to them.

Upon reaching the group, she let out a shocked gasp.

"Dearest me?" she said. "What happened?"

"Just… heal us… now…" said Raph, somehow still managing to sound angry despite the fact that he was gasping for air.

Raine nodded and took out her staff, a white light shining over the group afterwards.

Then, their wounds closed up, and they all groaned lightly as they got on their knees.

Genis was the first to stand up, grabbing his kendama as he slowly stood up.

"Man!" said Genis. "That was some crazy stuff we saw back there."

"You're telling me," responded Bowser, also getting up. "Come on. We need to come up with a new game plan here."

"The last one didn't work?" asked Raine.

"What does it look like?" asked Raph irritably, standing up and helping Sheena off of the floor. "Of course it didn't work! Now let's get workin'."

Wordlessly, Raine nodded, and with this she walked back to the inn where they were staying at, the rest of the group following wordlessly behind.

* * *

Largo sat on the bed across from Lina's, the larger man sharpening his axe as the little girl was stringing up a bow in the other side of the room. 

"Well, tomorrow's the big day," said Largo. "It's the final match."

"Yep!" said Lina. "We better do our best!"

"I think we will," said Largo, setting down the axe he had been sharpening. "After all, we made it this far, and we've got everything to fight for."

"But that's not enough…" said Lina, eyes averting their gaze to the side. "Lina knows that."

"Why say that?" asked Largo. "After all, we do have a great amount of power on us right now."

"Lina knows," said the girl. "But it didn't save my friend…"

Largo's expression shifted in curiosity.

"It didn't save your friend?" asked Largo. "What about that didn't save you friend?"

"No," said Lina suddenly, turning away. "I don't wanna tell!"

Largo sighed and walked over to the young girl, sitting next to her on the bed.

"It's okay," said Largo. "Sometimes it helps to talk about the things you don't want to talk about. Please, Lina. I'm your friend."

The little girl pouted for a brief second, but then turned to Largo.

"You know Lina's friends?" asked Lina.

"The one you beat me up over?" asked Largo.

"Yep," said Lina. "Well, there were five of us. It was Lina, Ein, Serene, Fia, and Cierra. We were travelling around, killing demons, and we were a group."

"Okay," said the berserker encouragingly when Lina took a pensive break.

"And…" said the little girl. "And then we saw him. Hector. He was making the demons appear so he could get power over Asgard without Riviera. But we stopped him. And…"

"And you defeated his creation or something?" asked Largo, hoping to help the girl along.

"Yes," said Lina, voice going a little somber. "But he needed one soul to create it. Cierra was the unlucky one."

Largo nodded somberly.

"I see," said the berserker.

"We had everything to fight for," said Lina. "But my friend died."

"I'm sorry," said Largo. "What do you think is the thing we need most?"

"Lina thinks that we have to pull through together…" said the little girl.

"Teamwork, then?" asked Largo. "I think we have plenty of that, too."

"You think so?" asked Lina.

"Yep," said Largo. "Now cheer up for me! Being down the day before the big fight isn't going to help! We can do it, Lina. Just trust me, okay?"

"Okay," said Lina, features lighting up a little. "Let's go kick their butts tomorrow!"

"That's the spirit!" said Largo, a huge smile lighting up his figure as he stood up and looked at Lina.

The berserker then sat down, and he returned to sharpening his axe as the girl looked on with joy in her eyes.

* * *

"Well, we got what we're looking for." 

"Yep. Now let's get out of here."

Serene and Ness both ran through a dark corridor. They had just stolen another artifact, thus bringing their artifact count up to two. However, that did not change the fact that they were in a dark place with ghosts threatening to descend on them any second.

So, they ran.

Thankfully, they did not have to run very far, as Ness was able to light torches as they ran. This managed to keep the ghosts at bay for a while, so the two of them were able to progress quickly in a short amount of time.

Finally, after around two minutes of running (and one near encounter with a ghost), the duo saw a light leading outside, and before either of them were able to do anything else they were already outside of the temple they were just in.

They had been drained of energy, so Ness collapsed onto the ground first, with Serene following pretty closely behind. The sprite dropped the trident and the sphere that was the second artifact they had found.

The two of them panted for a while before Serene finally grabbed the trident and helped herself up.

"Well, that was pretty hectic," said Serene, the desert heat not helping her sweating form at all. "Not to mention a little whacked out."

"You're telling me," gasped Ness, barely able to get himself up off of the ground. "So, what next?"

"The tournament ends tomorrow," said Serene. "We ought to get back to the town now."

"Yep," said Ness. "But help me up, please!"

The sprite nodded and held out a hand to the young psychic that he gladly took. The two of them then cast glances to the sides and walked away.

A few hours later, a deranged Samus Aran walked in front of the temple, following the footprints that were beginning to fade.

Samus had undergone quite a change in the past week in her quest for revenge; her hair was completely disheveled and messy, her sapphire eyes were bloodshot with lack of sleep, and there were a multitude of other things that were wrong with here right then and there. She kept her gun out all of the time as well, the steel on the gun glinting in the sunlight.

The woman looked at the Y-shape made by the footprints, noticed the faint outline of the now-disappearing footprints, and kept on following the footprints, eyes never averting from their course.

* * *

"Prepare the Moonstone Cannon!" 

Snake nodded, running downstairs to tell the crew to get ready to fire the Moonstone Cannon, Leo and Fina both working at the controls as Enrique watched over the now-unconscious Muraji.

Lots of things had changed. Firstly, Leo's cloak had gone off for what would probably be forever; he had just revealed his form to a terrified Muraji, effectively causing the cowardly man to faint into a deep sleep. He had also shocked Enrique a little, but the Valuan prince had gotten over it rather quickly.

Secondly, the Blue Gigas had been awakened. The rather large bird machine flew throughout the skies, firing incredibly powerful beams this way and that as it attempted to destroy everything in sight. The only thing strong enough to stop it was the Delphinus, and the group was ready to take on the challenge of killing the Gigas.

And thus, they were stuck in a battle they were sure they could win.

But it had just started, after all.

The Gigas was beginning to charge it's beam, Leo looking on as it charged it.

"Leo!" shouted Aika. "We need to go faster to avoid that attack!"

The turtle nodded, and he was at work commanding the people in the engine room to go as fast as humanly possible.

As the Delphinus picked up speed, Aika's command worked its wonder, for the Delphinus narrowly missed the beam that came at it.

"Good!" said Fina, looking on at the battle. "We dodged it."

"Yep," said Aika. "Now, let's go fire that Moonstone Cannon!"

The young air pirate steered the Delphinus so that it faced the large bird, and then aimed at where the Moonstone Cannon would hit.

"Okay," said Leo. "Moonstone Cannon, fire!"

A mechanical whirr was heard below, and after a few seconds a pink glow emanated from the bow of the ship. After a short amount of time, a beam suddenly extended from underneath the bow of the Delphinus and right up to the Gigas. The bird began to screech at the top of its robotic lungs, signaling that the tactic worked.

"All right!" said Leo. "I think we can take it from here…"

Aika nodded, and she steered the ship away from the creature as it prepared to fire another beam at it.

* * *

Captain Falcon sat down outside of the building that he and Frank had just escaped from. 

They had gotten lucky; the artifact was in their reach after they killed the man in the red trench coat and his simian friend, but then they were unable to beat the alarm system. They had been captured, their weapons taken away, and the artifact taken from them as well.

Thankfully, Falcon happened to have been hiding a paper clip in his glove, so Frank and Falcon were able to escape. And before they knew it, they had retrieved their weapons, the artifact, and they had managed to get rid of every single person in the building together.

And now, they were out of the building, alive.

Frank took a few steps forward before stopping a few inches away from the path away from the building.

"I'll admit," said Castle. "Those were some pretty damn good tricks you had up your sleeve, Falcon."

"And you too," said Falcon. "We got out of there alive."

"Yep," said Castle, walking back to Falcon and sitting next to the F-Zero pilot.

"So, I think what we need to do now is apologize for getting on each other's cases about things," said Falcon, holding his hand out to the vigilante.

Castle sat there, pondering on whether he had to apologize. True, Falcon had gotten the two of them out alive, but really, there were a few things that Falcon could not get a grasp on.

However, in the end of the day, Castle had his life, and for Falcon he had to give thanks.

So with this in mind, the vigilante took Falcon's hand in his and shook it, giving a small, sincere smile as he shook the hand.

"I'm sorry," said Castle.

"It's okay," said Falcon. "And I'm sorry for bitching about things too."

"Don't worry about it," said the Punisher. "It's all good. Friends?"

"Friends," responded the captain, who stood up. Castle decided to stand up as well.

"Come on," said Castle. "We better get going."

The two of them ran off onto the pathway, leaving the building they were once in behind.


	15. Chapter 14: The End of the Tournament

Hello, everybody. After forever and a half of this thing not being updated, I finally got around to returning to it! And on top of it, I give you a little gift; three fight scenes in one chapter! Happy times!

So, I'll cut straight to the good stuff so you don't have to writhe in pain any more. Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 14: The End of the Tournament

Lina stood inside the arena, bow at the ready, standing just behind Largo for cover.

The two of them so happened to be facing Lloyd and Collete in the final battle, and the two of them were standing on the other side of the arena, their own weapons at the ready.

"We're not taking it easy on you!" cried Lloyd.

"And we're not taking it easy on you, either!" replied Largo loudly. "May the best man win!"

"Fighters ready?" asked the announcer loudly, the audience nervous at what was going to happen after the fight started.

"Are we ever?" asked Collette loudly as everybody else nodded.

"Fight!" cried the announcer.

And just like that, Lloyd ran forward, his two swords at the ready as he made for Largo.

"I'll take care of Largo!" shouted Lloyd. "Collette, you get Lina!"

No sooner had the swordsman said this than Lina leapt up into the air, the girl stringing an arrow and aiming at Collette as the bererker below her raised his axe in defense from Lloyd.

The clang of Lloyd's blades against Largo's axe resounded through the arena as Largo turned around, swinging his axe in a wide arc to counter the attack. Lloyd had trouble taking the sheer force of the blow that he managed to block with his blades, so thus he was sent flying back. However, the swordsman landed back on his feet and rushed right at Largo again, the loud clang of steel resounding once again as this time Lloyd kept up the attack, Largo jumping out of the way at seeing how fast Lloyd's swords were before attempting to make another blow again.

Lina, meanwhile, was not having too much trouble with Collette. The blonde girl was always moving, though, which annoyed Lina to no end as it threw off the aim of her shots. However, the chakrams that Collette constantly tossed at her missed due to the fact that she was always in the air, and coupled with the fact that Lina was much more agile than Collette, the girl felt it was going to be really easy.

However, suddenly the girl stopped, and then out of nowhere she picked up a hammer and threw it right at Lina. The girl was caught off guard for a brief second, barely managing to dodge the red hammer as it flew past her. It threw off her landing, too, so the girl was grounded for a few seconds, which was enough time for Collette to run up to her. By that time, however, Lina had let out a little gasp, and never to be outdone she immediately jumped up again, readying an arrow and firing.

Largo, meanwhile, was having a little trouble taking care of Lloyd. The berserker's strikes were strong enough to keep Lloyd a great distance away from him, but whenever he had managed to knock the young man far enough away, he would just come running back to Largo with renewed vigor. The berserker was far from tiring out, however, so he kept sending blows at the young man's direction.

There was one slip-up that Largo suddenly noticed in Lloyd's combat where he was a little unsteady after a certain blow that Largo landed. Taking the opportunity in this stumble, the berserker quickly managed to hit Lloyd with the flat side of his axe, sending the boy flying into the far wall. The force of the blow was so powerful that there was a dent left in the stone wall, and then Lloyd fell forward unconsious, the swords being discarded on the ground in front of him.

Collette looked over at Largo's direction in panic, and then she tripped. This gave Lina the opportunity she needed to string an arrow into her bow. And as she jumped into the air, she grabbed the arrow in her hand, lightning suddenly appearing on the end of it.

"Lightning Arrow!" yelled the little girl as she let go of the arrow.

Collette barely had time to stand up before the projectile struck the ground hear her. Before she could fathom what else was going on, a bolt of lightning came down from above and struck her, the resulting shock managing to knock her out cold as well.

Lina touched the ground and looked to Largo, who had a few scratches on his muscular body from Lloyd's two swords, and then the two of them looked at the announcer.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" cried the announcer. "I give you the winners of our tag tournament: Lina and Largo!"

The crowd went crazy with applause as the two of them raised their hands in triumph. The awards ceremony would be soon, they were sure, and they would finally have the artifact that they had worked so hard to attain.

However, in the back of the stadium, Ness sneered as he looked at the victors of the match.

"Lina and Largo," he said in a whisper. "We'll be seeing each other tomorrow, we will. And when we meet, we'll get that rope from you!"

With a snicker, Ness promptly left the building, running back to his inn to relay the news to Serene.

* * *

Elise looked at the rope in wonder, the ornate item laid out on the bar almost majestically.

The Rope of Istar was a very small rope indeed, but it was tied in such an intricate way that it almost resembled a pretzel that gleamed white gold from it. The seal that was imprinted on both ends of the rope were majestic indeed, and the rope itself seemed to shine with the brilliance of the sun.

"Damn," said Elise as she stared at the rope with wide eyes. "I don't know what to say, other than that this is the most majestic thing I've ever seen in my hears as an innkeep."

"Lina likes to look at this rope a lot!" exclaimed the girl cheerfully as she sat on the bar, Largo to her right as he took a sip from his beer. "It is all nice and shiny!"

"Yeah," said Largo as he put the glass down. "The guys trying to save the word will be very happy with this find."

"I'm sure they will," said Elise. "So, Largo, you're going off to pick up Antonia tomorrow morning, and then you come back for Lina and the two of you leave the city, right?"

"Yes," said Largo. "So long as we give it back after a year, we can take the rope wherever."

"All right then," said Elise as she wiped a beer glass and gently lowered it into the sink where all of the dirty dishes she had been preparing to wash when the two of them had walked in. "I guess I'll see you two for the last time tomorrow."

"Lina thinks so..." said the girl quietly.

"Well, no matter the case I'll miss you both," said Elise. "You were both two of the best customers an innkeep could meet; always smiling, and always optimistic."

"Thanks," said Largo, taking a sip from his beer and wiping his mouth off with his arm. "You know, you're actually a really good innkeep too."

"I try my best," replied Elise. "So, from here, I wish you two luck on your journey to keep those Organization bastards from taking over the world!"

"Thanks," said Lina.

"Here's to life!" said Largo, raising his beer glass in the air. "And being successful in life!"

"Hear, hear!" said Elise and Lina at the same time, raising their fists in the air as if they had held drinks.

The berserker gestured with the glass with a broad smile before he brought the glass up to his lips again, drinking the beer heartily and with plenty of mirth in his being.

* * *

Antonia walked with Largo, her healing staff in hand and her brown hair trailing along behind her as she walked next to the bulky berserker. The sun was peeking out of its cover, the market day just beginning as people walked to various stalls around the area.

"So, this quest," said Antonia. "These people are trying to take over the world, yes?"

"Of course," said Largo with a nod. "I think I've been clear on that."

"So, who do we look out for?" asked the woman as they walked through the marketplace back to the inn where they stayed.

"Groups of two people that are trying to find artifacts, that is for sure," said Largo with a shrug. "I don't know how we're supposed to identify them myself."

"Well, if we run into them as we try to collect an artifact, that must certainly be a good indication of what to expect," said Antonia with a slight grimace. "I hope we do not have to kill anybody..."

"Well, the world is a bit violent at times," said Largo. "And it's not like the colloseum where we don't bleed. No, you'll have to treat a few things here and there. But you should be experienced, right?"

"Yes," said Antonia with a nod.

"Hey, hey, hey!" exclaimed a familiar voice. "Look who's out and ready!"

Largo and Antonia both stopped in their tracks and turned around to find Lloyd, Collette, Presea, and Regal all walking towards them with smiles on their faces as they walked over to the berserker!"

"Hey, guys!" said Largo with a wave and a smile. "No hard feelings, then?"

"Of course not!" said Collette with a smile. "I mean, uh, you know."

"Uh, yeah..." said Antonia, who was actually not sure what she meant at all.

"We're just glad to have been here is all," said Regal with a nod. "So where's Lina?"

"Oh, she's still at the inn," said Largo. "I had to pick up Antonia from a seperate inn, and then we're going by the inn we stayed at to get Lina and leave."

"Ah," said Lloyd. "We'll be leaving soon. We just need to wrap up a few loose ends with some of these guys here, and we're good to go."

"That's good to hear," said the berserker with a smile. "Anyways, you two sure put up a fight yesterday!"

"Did we?" asked Collette with a sense of wonder in her voice.

"I shall say it again," said Presea coldly. "Collette and Lloyd's chances of winning: 49. Largo and Lina's chances of winning: 51."

"So it was about even," said Antonia. "I can settle for that."

"So anyways, I think we should get going here," said Lloyd with a smile. "It was nice seeing you here."

"Same to you," said Largo. "It was really great knowing you all and getting to fight with you at the end there!"

However, Regal suddenly tensed at something behind the berserker, Antonia tilting her head to the side in wonder.

"Regal?" asked Presea quickly.

"I don't know what's going on here, but somebody's trying to kill you here!" cried Regal as he leapt above the berserker and landed right on top of a woman with blue hair and strange bat-like wings who had been sneaking up behind Largo with a scythe in hand.

The calm marketplace atmosphere was shattered instantly, the people inside quickly rushing out into a circle as Regal jumped up again, holding the girl he had landed on by the collar and throwing her back down to the earth.

Largo, who thankfully had brought his axe with him, reached back to get his axe out. He took a hold of it quickly and held it in front of him, walking towards the girl as his expression turned cross.

"And what the hell were you after?" asked Largo, holding the axe out just above the person who tried to kill him threateningly.

"I'm after your prize!" shouted the girl resolutely. "And I'll get it no matter what!"

"My prize?" asked the berserker. "You mean that rope!"

"Of course!" shouted the voice of a young boy that was behind the berserker.

Lloyd, thinking quickly, drew out his dual blades, and suddenly a group of fourteen knives were launched at the berserker without the use of hands. Lloyd ran in front of Largo, and with skillful swordsmanship he sent the knives flying elsewhere.

However, the knives suddenly darted straight at the swordsman, and he barely had time to think before four knives sailed straight into his legs and his shoulders, the young man yelling in pain as he fell to the floor, clutching his shoulders in pain. Nobody had any time to turn around to look at the damage caused by the knives before suddenly another four darted for Regal, stabbing him in the same areas and causing him the same pains. Yet another group of four knives went after Collette too, but before they could do any major harm she had already seen the pattern and stepped out of their trajectory. After tripping and falling on her face, the knives clashed against each other, and then the girl got up as quickly as she could while the knives rose and ran as fast as she could in the direction of the inn that Largo and Lina were staying at. After the girl ran a certain distance, the knives stopped following her and fell down to the floor, absolutely worthless in the fact that their intended target was not hit.

"W-what the?" cried out Antonia suddenly as she, Largo, and Presea all looked at the carnage that had just ensued.

This distraction was enough for a loud clang to resound through the area as the woman under Largo's axe suddenly sent her scythe flying right up at Largo's axe. The axe was blown away, and Largo got his bearings quickly enough for him to block a jumping slash from the female offender.

Antonia looked up after this move, emerald eyes shining in a strange blend of paranoia and a will to live. In her wariness, she looked around to find that both knives were now sailing at her. Thinking on instinct, the woman jumped forward, narrowly dodging the stab the two knives had going for her face. However, they reeled back into action, and the healer screamed as she ran around as quickly as she could, the knives following right behind her in an attempt to kill her.

Presea looked around before she noticed that Largo was taking quite a beating from the strange woman, who was landing plenty of scratches on the berserker despite the sheer size of her weapon as he clambored to keep up with her tempo. Almost without thinking, the girl took her own axe out and walked towards the girl. Thus, she completely surprised the offender when she lifted her axe and managed to deal a fairly nasty gash to the female's leg.

When the woman turned around and found herself blocking blows from both axe users, she felt a little daunted for a few seconds. However, her mastery of the scythe suddenly worked for her as Largo and Presea both found all of their swings blocked by the mysterious woman who had tried to kill them barely a few seconds earlier.

And while the two axepeople and the mysterious woman traded blows, Antonia ran around with a frightened expression on her face signifying her true fear.

Lloyd looked up from where he laid, and when seeing the woman's terror, he knew he had to do something.

Slowly, he clambored up, ignoring the searing pain emanating from his shoulders with each movement he made. He slowly got up into a position where he could see the entire crowd, and as the loud clang of axes against a scythe rang throughout the marketplace, the swordsman saw a small boy somewhere in the crowd with his hands on his head who seemed to be concentrating. Lloyd was no genius, but he was able to figure out that somehow, he was the one controlling the knives.

And then, Lloyd crawled forwards, his right arm holding on to one of his swords as he crawled towards the boy. Almost instinctively, the crowd backed away from his crawling towards the boy. And then, after around ten seconds of crawling through unbearable pain towards the boy he knew must be dealt with, he raised his sword weakly, the boy in front of him just then noticing his presence.

The knives, meanwhile, had managed to corne Antonia against a market stall and a wall, and they hovered above her face for a few seconds, the girl screaming loudly as she was certain the knives would sink into her flesh and kill her any second.

As the boy looked at Lloyd and made a confused sound, the swordsman let out a yell, his sword cutting cleanly through the boy's midsection as he then dropped to the ground, his breathing labored as he looked at the body of the boy in front of him, his two halves both on the floor and his upper half screaming his head off progressively softer as the blood loss slowly claimed his life.

When Antonia was sure she was finished, she barely heard the clatter of the knives against the stone floor of the market. So she screamed for a few seconds more, and when she noticed she had not been killed yet, she looked down at the scene before her, and then noticed the knives lying there.

With a sigh of relief, she walked forward, and finding Lloyd in a state where he would die without any help and in front of the corpse of a boy that he had apparently killed, she ran forward, knelt down to Lloyd's level, and began to treat the boy, plucking the knives out of his wounded areas quickly as she held her staff up to the wounds and healed them, the tell-tale light showing that she was indeed doing something to help the man who had saved her life.

* * *

Lina sat on the bar with Elise standing on the other side of it. Most of the tenants were already out of the inn and doing their business, leaving the energetic girl to sit on the stool with her bow in her lap and her head resting on her hand. The Rope of Istar sat on the counter, majestically glowing despite the morose mood that Lina was in.

"Where is he?" asked Lina. "Lina doesn't get why he's so late..."

"I don't get it either," said Elise as she looked at the little girl. "Largo's more timely than this!"

"Lina hopes they didn't run off without me..." said the little girl abashedly.

"Don't say that, Lina!" exclaimed Elise as she looked at Lina. "You know Largo's not that kind of guy! Maybe he's just taking a little too long because of some business his girl got herself into."

"Lina hopes you're right," replied the orange-haired girl, twirling some strands of her hair with her finger. "Lina is feeling strange..."

"Well, we'll find a way--"

Elise had barely finished this sentence before the door to the inn swung wide open with a crash, Lina and Elise both jumping up in surprise at the sound. And then, a few seconds later, Collette tripped into the room, and as she stood up, her shoulders heaved in the sheer effort it required to breathe.

"Collette?" asked Elise. "Why are you here?"

"I've got no time to explain!" said the girl as she walked over to Lina. "You've gotta get to the market, fast!"

"Why?" asked Lina, leaning forward in her seat. "Is Largo in trouble?"

"Yes!" cried Collette. "Somebody's trying to kill him for the prize!"

"Oh, no!" said Elise, picking up the rope and draping it over her shoulder. "Lina, I'll hide the rope somewhere. You go with Collette and help Largo. I'll be waiting around for you and Largo to return to get the rope. And if you don't come back, I'll do my best to keep that secret to myself."

"All right," said Collette with a bow. "Lina, come on!"

The energetic girl wasted no time jumping off of the stool she had been sitting on, and grabbing her bow, she ran right out of the inn behind Collette as they both ran back to the market.

* * *

Largo and Presea had both managed to outpower their attacker just a little bit. The strange woman was having a harder time evading their axeblows now, and all three of them were then beginning to tire out. However, Serene was leaving more misteps and more things for people to roll their eyes at, and slowly the blows were beginning to amount to too much work for her.

Antonia had managed to heal Lloyd and Regal; however, she had them rest on a market stall since their muscles were in no condition to be used. Regal and Lloyd both watched the fight, Regal deep in thought while Lloyd was bored as all hell watching the fight drag on.

However, suddenly the mysterious woman tripped for no reason at all, and then Largo took this opportunity to hold his axe over her neck the way he had done before, the woman barely even trying to get back up as the sore feeling in her muscles took over. She looked at Largo with sad eyes that shone with the radiance of a moonlit body of water, begging for mercy at having underestimated both her opponents.

Largo shook his head vigorously, repositioning himself so that his axe hovered above the woman's neck as precariously as before.

"Look, lady!" cried the berserker. "You tried to kill me to get that rope, right? Why didn't you fight in the tournament!"

"I was too late to enter!" replied the woman weakly. "Please! Have mercy on me!"

"Chance of you persuading Largo; 0.0001 percent," said Presea almost mechanically. "I suggest you let yourself be killed."

"But I--!" exclaimed the woman before the axe's blade came closer to her neck.

"No," said the berserker. "I won't hear about anything you have to say."

And then, with a hefty breath, the berserker pulled the axe up so that the blade was over his head, the axeman ready to behead the woman below him.

"Largo, no!" yelled Lina's voice suddenly from the other side of the marketplace. "No!"

The form of Lina was then seen running through the crowd, Largo twisting around to see it. The mysterious woman got up on her elbow to look, and when she saw the orange ponytails bouncing in the marketplace, a chord of familiarity hit her being.

"Lina?" asked the woman softly.

Finally, the orange-haired girl appeared in front of Largo, hugging the berserker's knees and crying against them like the girl that she was.

"Lina, get off of my leg!" cried Largo angrily. "I'm not telling you again!"

"Lina..." said the mysterious woman more audibly as she found the strength to get on her knees to crawl over to the girl. "You're all right after all..."

Largo's expression instantly changed from anger to one of surprise as he heard the words coming out of the woman's mouth.

"Don't kill her, please!" cried out Lina again. "Serene is Lina's friend! Don't kill her!"

"Hey, hey," said the woman, patting Lina on the shoulder as she got onto her knees. "I'll be fine. Don't you worry, Lina. I'm still alive."

The girl turned to face the woman, tears in her eyes.

"Oh, Serene..." choked the girl in between tears.

Lina's face suddenly found itself buried in the crook of Serene's shoulders, and then the Arc pulled the girl into a hug as she cried.

Largo was shocked at this development, and then he looked first at Serene, then at the axe, then at Serene again. Upon the realization that he almost killed Lina's friend, he literally dropped his axe harmlessly on the ground, absolutely horrified at what he almost did. If he had actually done it, Largo realized that Lina would have been inconsolable.

The scene rang vibes of being emotional, the crowd looking on with a small line of empty space from where Lina had run into the action being present the entire time.

Antonia looked up, however, to see a blonde woman a long ways off wearing a very skin-tight suit and holding a gun in her hand. She looked delirious, and she slowly brought the gun up to the level where Serene's head was.

Antonia, seeing this, suddenly ran in front of the Arc right when the new woman pulled the trigger on her gun. Before anybody else could really say anything, the bolt of energy that was sent flying from the gun sent Antonia into spasms, and she fell on the floor in a siezure.

"Antonia!" yelled Largo, dropping down to his knees and holding the spasming woman in his arms.

Lina looked up and saw the woman there, taking aim with her blaster. Wasting no time at all, Lina grabbed her own bow, strung an arrow to it, and released it. The arrow hit the woman square in the chest, and then blood was seen gushing out from the wound as she fell over, dying and soon to be dead.

As Antonia finally calmed down in the berserker's arms, Largo found the courage to look at the woman he had come to fall in love with. Presea walked up to him, and when the berserker noticed her presence, he looked up at her, his amethyst eyes pleading with the girl.

Presea nodded and took a good look at Antonia, noticing the motions of her body as Largo held her. With a nod and a grimace, the girl looked into the berserker's eyes.

"She's gone," said Presea. "I'm sorry."

Largo nodded understandingly, a tear rolling down his cheek as he held the dead woman in her arms.

"I'm sorry, Antonia," said the berserker. "I wish I could have let you live out your destiny..."

A choked sob escaped his throat, and suddenly his face was buried in Antonia's shoulder, the woman that was killed by Lina's arrow going completely unnoticed as Lina and Serene both walked over to Largo to pat his shoulder comfortingly.

* * *

Serene, Lina, and Largo all looked at the grave that was dug for Antonia. The earth had been piled onto the corpse, and the three heroes had stopped by the grave to allow Largo a last look at the woman that he had apparently cared for very much. Extra items were draped over their shoulders; Serene had seen it fit to carry all of the artifacts they had collected, which mean that the group now had three different items to carry around. It was a tough job, to be sure, but it was doable.

Largo nodded at the grave, having said everything he needed to say to Antonia earlier than the time they were there. He then faced the two women and nodded.

"Let's go," he said simply.

Serene nodded, and then the three of them left the sandy graveyard, Largo's mood improving as he left.

"You got over that awfully quick," said Serene as soon as they had left the graveyard and the town next to it behind.

"Well, when I thought about it, I realized that I hadn't really fallen for her," said the berserker. "More like come to care for her, I guess. I didn't feel that I loved her. But I think if we had gotten to know each other better, we could have been in love."

"I see," said Serene. "So you were approached by that green orb too, huh?"

"You bet!" said Lina. "I can't believe you got so much stuff already!"

"Well, the more stuff we have, the harder it is for the baddies to take over the world, right?" asked the Arc.

"True," said Largo. "I think Antonia will be happy down there."

"So do I," replied Serene. "Now, let's get moving and find more things all over the place before we get approached by the bad guys.

The three of them walked into the endless desert, walking ahead and waiting for their adventure to truly start to unfold.


	16. Chapter 15: Worlds of Suffering

Okay, so I'm back here again with another update for Twenty Warriors. After my return (which nobody noticed, sadly), I present this chapter to you. Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 15: Worlds of Suffering

Frank Castle and Captain Falcon walked onwards in the never-ending scenery, Falcon's hands on the artifact that they had with them as they walked along. They found themselves walking through a forest for an obscenely long amount of time, and so the two of them had either taken a look around as they walked or conversed. And Falcon felt like he was in the mood to talk to Frank.

And talk he did.

"Say, Frank," said Falcon, the vigilante's attention turned away for a moment to look at the racer. "When did the orb talk with us last?"

"I don't remember," said Castle. "And frankly, I don't think I want to remember. 'Cause there's something about that orb..."

"Oh, and you just decided to tell me this now?" asked Falcon with a frustrated gesture. "Why didn't you say anything earlier?"

"I didn't think I could trust you with me then, but now I do," said the vigilante. "It goes something like this; you noticed that it seemed to be speaking almost like it knew that something else was going on?"

"Well, now that you mention it, it does kind of sound like that..." replied the racer as he scratched his chin.

"Exactly," said Castle. "Now, I've seen plenty of crime lords like that. So ya know what that means?"

"You don't trust this orb at all," said Falcon with a nod.

"Exactly," said Frank. "And that's why I don't trust this guy. I think he's--"

Castle did not get to say anything else to the racer, for suddenly, Falcon let out a cry of pain, and he stumbled backwards with a kunai knife in his throat, the thud that resulted from his fall overbearing.

Without missing a beat, Castle took out his guns and began firing, only to fall himself when a kunai lodged itself in one of his arms and then his chest, where the sharp blade punctured his heart.

As the vigilante fell to the ground dying, he saw a pair of men clad in black clothing jump out from the trees and walk over to the artifact that Falcon had with him. The larger man of the two bent down to the ground to look at the artifact, giving it a good examination before picking the artifact up from the ground.

"The Orb of Halpatran," said one of the larger men in black. "This is what we've been looking for!"

"Lord Kugarejira will be most pleased with this," said a smaller man in the same attire. "We shall head back and present him with this orb."

Frank let out a labored breath as he sat up, but no sooner had he moved to do anything than he felt a strange sensation wash over him, and then the vigilante fell over, his arm splayed out across Captain Falcon's belly and his body face-down. The larger man in black shook his head at the stupid display.

"And what of them?" asked the large man.

"Leave them to the birds," said the smaller man. "They'll be a warning for anybody that decides to defy Lord Kugarejira."

"Understood," said the larger man.

The two of them then leapt away, taking to the trees as they rushed back to their lord's castle high on the mountain.

* * *

Raphael, Bowser, Sheena, and Genis were all walking in the market the next day, resolving to leave the village again and try to scale Kugarejira's mountain once again. Raine was with them now, and as the five of them walked on, they gave each other hard looks.

"Okay, this is it," said Raph. "This time, we're goin' in, and I don't care what stops us. We're goin' in."

"Okay," said Raine. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Look, Raine, if we don't do something, then these people will keep on suffering," said Bowser. "And if this Kugarejira man is as strong as he seems to be, then he does not want the Orb of Halpatran for anything good."

"So we have to leave is what you're saying," said Genis. "All right. But promise me this; we'll all get out alive."

"Okay, kid," said Raph with a smirk. "You're on."

As the five of them left the village, he suddenly felt a strange sense of foreboding tingling in his being. Shrugging, he dismissed this and walked on in the half-twilight of the area.

* * *

Kasumi, Mario, and Link all ran on in the forest, the three of them not stopping to think.

"I wonder, when are we going to get to this place?" asked Mario.

"Don't think about that," replied Link. "We've gotta hurry, or else these guys that are in there will have gotten that thing already!"

"This cannot be good!" said Kasumi.

Finally, they broke out of the woods and onto a path that led to a tall building ahead of them.

"Good," said Link. "We found the place. Now, the next question is where in this place is the artifact?"

However, Mario had turned around to see if there was nobody sneaking up on them, and then he leapt back while letting out a suppressed gasp. When Link and Kasumi turned around to look, they were greeted by the sight of two bodies in the dirt behind them, and even worse was the fact that Link knew one of the faces of the dead.

"Falcon!" yelled Link as he ran to the downed men. Without missing a beat, Kasumi walked over there and checked the body of the racer known as Captain Falcon.

"He's dead," she said, looking at the knife in his skull. "The kunai killed him."

The shinobi turned and rolled the other man off of Falcon to check his status Mario took off his red cap in rememberance, bowing his head down in respect for the racing captain. Link, desperate and very disturbed, watch Kasumi analyze the other man quickly.

However, before the kunoichi was able to say anything about the man's status, he let out a light cough, blood falling out of the sides of his mouth.

"Goodness!" cried Link. "His friend is still alive!"

"Kugarejira... artifact... stole... from... us..." said the man in the shirt with the skull on it, his breathing labored as he struggled to get his last words out. "Get... it... Frank... Castle... nam..."

And a few seconds later, the man's cold, hard eyes closed to the world, and he muttered something before he stopped breathing the labored breaths he had been taking and died. There was silence for a few seconds, Link also taking off his cap and letting the long blonde hair underneath it hang out as he too bowed his head. Kasumi did the same, and then all three of them slowly looked back up at each other.

"Kugarejira..." said Link solemnly. "Whatever that is, it's responsible for Falcon's death!"

"You knew this 'Falcon' fellow?" asked Kasumi.

"We fought in the same tournament," said Link. "He was a great man, a noble competitor, and one of the greatest people a guy could know."

"Shame that he has to-a die so-a soon..." said Mario softly.

"Kugarejira..." said Kasumi. "I believe I know where we are now."

"You do?" asked Link.

"And Kugarejira probably has the artifact we're looking for..." said Kasumi.

"I think-a we know what that-a means," said Mario.

"But first, we should give them a proper burial," said the Hylian solemnly. "They died for a noble cause, so the least we could grant them is a place to sleep..."

"Yes," said the kunoichi with a nod as she stood up. "Let's find a place to bury them first."

Link took up Falcon's body within his arms, and Kasumi took the body of one Frank Castle on her shoulders, and then the three people that were still living walked on to find a place where they could let the two warriors rest for all eternity.

* * *

Vyse looked at the temple they were close to, giving it a quick looking over before turning to the rest of his group.

"Well, I guess this is it," said the air pirate with a nod.

The group had gotten out of the plains and into a rather long stretch of desert. Thankfully, however, they all knew that they were headed in the right direction to get the next artifact.

The temple they had arrived at was very ornate in structure; if one did not know the difference, one certainly could have confused the temple with a brilliantly constructed forum. The building had lots of marble pillars all over the place that were holding up a singular structure, its walls being perfectly suited to hold up the structure magnificently well.

"Well, then," said Ganondorf as he crossed his arms in front of his chest and nodded. "Let us go see what is inside."

The four of them nodded and walked into the temple. The first thing they noticed was that the artifact was in plain sight. The group smiled very happily at this.

However, they were about to walk forwards when they noticed that there was a huge chasm separating the two parts of the floor, and that the artifact was situated in a spot in the temple where the only way one could get to it was to cross the chasm somehow. The four of them looked at each other, shrugging.

"Well, that ain't what we were askin' fer," said Wolverine bitterly.

"We'll find something," said Vyse with a thumbs up. "After all, where there's a will, there's a way, right?"

"Yes," replied Markus. "Let's see what we can do here."

The other two casted glances at each other and shrugged before the four of them began to walk around the temple, searching for a way to get across the very wide chasm and onto the side with the artifact on it.

Ganondorf, while inspecting the area, came across a switch that had been concealed by magic. Raising an eyebrow in response, he reached for the switch and pulled it.

Almost instantly, a stairwell jutted out from the side of the pit that the group was on, a rather loud rumbling taking hold of the area as the stairs slipped into place.

The king of the Gerudo tribe looked at the stairs quickly before he shrugged and walked over there.

Wolverine, having stood next to the spot where the stairs started, was already looking down the stairs into the dark abyss below. As Vyse and Markus joined the two of them, the mutant looked over to them and nodded.

"This looks like the on'y way down, man," said Logan with a nod.

"Okay, then," said Vyse. "Let's go down there."

With this said, the mutant went first, the air pirate, king, and commander all following closely behind as they descended the staircase.

* * *

The skies were covered with dark clouds, and the ground beneath them was barren except for the large gigas that now lay on the ground useless. The thunderclouds ahead threatened to erupt in a spark shower, and Leo and Snake both knew that it was a dire situation for all.

"D-did we actually just beat that thing?" asked Aika incredulously.

"Apparently we did," replied Enrique softly. "Thank goodness that is over."

"Well, with that done, we can collect the Yellow Moon Crystal now," said Leo, pulling at the edge of the cloak he had put back on. "And that means that we only have the Silver Crystal left to find, right?"

"And my ship," said Fina with a nod. "We need to find my ship so I can return to the elders. They already have the Silver Moon Crystal."

"So that means our quest is almost done!" cried Aika with a jump. "And that mean's we'll be able to go on Leo and Snake's quest! I can hardly wait!"

"But where's your ship?" asked Snake.

"It's at the bottom of the ocean somewhere..." said Fina, looking down at the floor.

"The bottom of the ocean?" asked Leo. "How are we going to get down there?"

"I think Brabham might now," said Aika, scratching her chin pensively. "I'll go down and ask!"

The fiery red-head sort of skipped to the exit to the brig, and when she left Fina stared outside of the windows with a sad expression on her face. Leo, seeing this draped an arm over her shoulder.

"Hey, are you okay?" asked Leo.

"Yes, I'm fine," replied the Silvite in a half sigh. "It's just, I've been through so much with you..."

"Hey, remember that you always have our quest to go on," said the humanoid turtle. "And when that happens, Valua can't trace us anywhere. In fact, they can't do anything about us because we won't be anywhere near them."

"You know what, you're right," said Fina with a reassured nod. "Once we get my ship back, I'm going back with you to your world, and I'm helping you and Snake out to the best of my ability!"

"That's the spirit!" said Leo with a soft pat to the Silvite's shoulder. "With soul like that, you'll get over anything!"

Fina grinned widely as Snake and Enrique nodded their heads, giving themselves glances every so often as the turtle and the Silvite talked.


	17. Chapter 16: Conquest

So, I'm back again with this fic. So, I'll just present the chapter to you now, and I hope you enjoy! :D

* * *

Chapter 16: Conquest

Raphael, Bowser, Sheena, Genis, and Raine all walked through the hallway of the surprisingly small temple, the five of them all looking around for the first sign of Kugarejira that they could find.

The temple's interior was rather small, and there were several tiers held up by pillars that were decorated with all sorts of ornate Japanese lanterns. The five of them also looked right in front of them to find a rather large fountain in front of them that spilled water into a small pond directly in front of it. The ornate nature of the temple was very delightful to the five of them, but they did not lose focus on their mission.

"So this is where Kugarejira lives..." said Bowser as he looked around him.

"Well, he's got quite the housing, then," said Raine with a nod. "I wonder why I expected there to be ruins of some sort."

"Oh, come on!" said Raphael, who was annoyed at the small talk. "I've been waitin' weeks to pummel this son of a bitch! Can't we quit talking and get a move on?"

"Okay, okay, fine," said Sheena with a grumpy attitude. "Let's go and find this guy..."

The five of them then looked around for the nearest stairway to begin their search of every inch of the temple.

* * *

Kasumi, Link, and Mario all stood relatively close to the hill that the palace was on, the twilight serving to unsettle both the Hylian and the plumber as they looked at the hill.

"So this is the place?" asked Link, effectively managing to hid his unsure feeling.

"Yes," said Kasumi. "Nothing has changed, apparently."

"So you-a know who this-a guy is," said Mario with a hand gesture.

"I was sent to assassinate him," replied the kunoichi. "But I failed and was forced to flee to my clan."

"I hope you didn't get punished too hard..." said the Hylian, who looked down at the ground again for lack of a better thing to do.

"I was going to," said Kasumi. "But then my brother left the clan, and I ran away in turn to look for him. Ever since, I've been on the run..."

"I see..." said Mario. "So, should-a we get this-a over with now?"

"Certainly," said Kasumi. "Let's go!"

And the three of them ran to the hill on which Kugarejira's palace resided.

* * *

Lord Kugarejira stood in front of the window, gazing out into the eternal twilight in a kneeling position with the Orb of Halpatran in his hand.

Finally, after years of searching, he had the artifact. He had the artifact that would allow him to purge the twilight from his castle and distribute it amongst the other parts of the world that were enveloped in the everlasting twilight. The others would soon know what it would be like to live under eternal night for as long as he lived.

And that filled him with a strange kind of sadistic happiness deep within his black eyes, the two orbs shining maliciously in the light of the candles around him. Soon, he would be the supreme being in all of the land, and nobody would be able to stop him.

At least, this was what he was sure of.

His malicious grin deepened into a frown just as he was about to cite the incantation needed to bring the light to his palace, as he heard soft ramblings from far away.

The voices got closer, and as they did Kugarejira smirked evilly. Drawing a kunai knife deep from his elaborate clothing, he stood up and faced the only way into the room.

Soon enough, a large humanoid turtle was shoved into the room. The instant the turtle flew in from no fault of his own, the man sent the kunai knife flying. The knife's path was such that the humanoid turtle felt a sharp sting across his forehead where blood suddenly poured down.

Not skipping a beat, the turtle looked over and, quite to Kugarejira's surprise, the hotheaded turtle chucked a sai his way, the point of it embedding itself in the wall behind him.

No sooner had the sai hit the wall than four more figures walked in, another huge humanoid turtle and three strange-looking people following him.

Sheena glared at the man in front of them, cards in her hand as Genis and Raine hid behind the ninja and Bowser. Raine was already working on Raphael's forehead, and quickly she got Raph into a standing position, the turtle finally having gotten out of his fit of impatience.

"So, you're Kugarejira," said Sheena coldly.

"Indeed I am," replied the warlord cooly. "Another ragtag bunch of assassins sent to kill me?"

"Not really," said Bowser in response. "We're after your orb because you can't have it!"

"Oh, and who might you be to say that?" asked Kugarejira with a sneer.

"You've raided countless villages of innocents," said Genis, coming out from behind Sheena as he spoke. "You've gone on ploys for power, you've killed innocents, you've enslaved people, all for your own gain! You don't deserve it on those grounds!"

"We shall see about that," taunted the warlord.

With barely another warning, the warlord sent a kunai knife flying at the female ninja. However, with a quick swipe of her deck of cards, Sheena blocked the blow, sending the Kunai knife to the side harmlessly. Bowser took this time to rush at the warlord, tackling to the ground with such momentum that the two of them were sent falling out of the window and onto a roof below them. Shaking their heads, the remaining four jumped out, Raphael taking his sai on the wall before jumping. They landed on the section of the roof below to find Bowser slowly getting up with Kugarejira already standing somewhere else on the roof.

"You didn't get him with that?" asked Genis annoyedly.

"He warped before I hit the roof!" cried Bowser angrily.

Before the koopa king could continue, however, the warlord raised his hand high in the air, and a lightning bolt came down and would almost have struck Raine if not for her quick thinking that caused her to jump to the side.

"Well, one thing's clear," said Raph, readying his sais in a combat stance. "This guy ain't fuckin' around."

"Raph, watch your language!" cried Raine, readying her staff.

The woman was cut off by a fireball that would have hit Sheena if she had not jumped over it towards the warlord. She managed to get one card in her swiftness before the lord teleported away from sight.

"Stop arguing and start fighting this guy!" shouted Bowser as he looked around and narrowly dodged a sudden outburst of light that would have damaged him if he had not jumped out of the way.

Genis raised his own Kendama in the air, and he summoned a pair of fireballs into the air, hoping they would latch on to Kugarejira. And when the fireballs flew straight into the building next to them, the palace wall caught fire and forced Kugarejira out of his hiding spot. When the warlord casted a water spell on the wall, however, Raphael saw a chance, and he swung at the warlord with a sai, only for Kugarejira to dodge this and counter with a nasty punch to the face.

Sheena went in after this dodged blow with a swipe from her cards. However, this missed as well, and Sheena almost fell off the roof. However, Bowser, who had been passing by when this happened, managed to grab Sheena's arm, and so she was swung back onto the roof in time to attempt a kick to the head. However, Kugarejira simply held his hand out and threw the foot down when it connected with his hand. This sent Sheena flipping so that she landed on the roof face-first. This momentary distraction was enough for Bowser to land a punch to Kugarejira's gut that sent him flying over the edge of the roof. Before he could get far, the man warped back onto the roof, dodging a blast of light that had been summoned from Raine's staff.

Genis had in all of this time been charging the most powerful spell in his arsenal, and he took this time to unleash it at this time. With a cry, a bunch of thunderclouds suddenly came together, and then thunder seemed to rain from the heavens. However, Kugarejira, not to be outdone, managed to dodge most of the thunderbolts, and when one of them hit him, he stilled long enough for Raphael to run at him and successfully get the warlord in the arm with the sai.

Growling lowly, the warlord hit the turtle with the palm of his hand and sent him flying into the nearby wall. As Bowser approached, the warlord suddenly flung a kunai knife at the turtle, the king barely blocking it with a spin where he retreated into his spiky shell for a moment to deflect the knife with a spike. The turtle spun out of this block with his hand swinging wide in an arc that would hopefully scratch the warlord. The warlord simply grabbed Bowser's wrist and tossed him into the side of the building in the same place where Raphael was just standing up. Before the mutated turtle could figure out what was happening, he suddenly found himself jumping to the side to dodge the spiky shell.

The two forces traded blows in such a manner for quite a while, neither side seeming to have a clear edge over the other as failed blow after failed blow was attempted by Sheena, Raphael, and Bowser. Genis and Raine both casted spells as frequently as possible, but just as fast they found themselves running out of the energy to cast the spells. Eventually, Kugarejira was seen to have the upper hand, having mastered the art of combat on quite a different level with the five heroes before him.

Eventually, the warlord stood before the five of them, Raphael, Bowser, and Sheena all tired and standing in such a way that their wounds were open with Raine being unable to heal them. The warlord regarded them with a cold smile and a nod.

"I shall admit that you were better opponents than I thought," said the warlord. "And for that, I must congratulate you. But I'm afraid your time is up."

"No," said Raphael, ever ready to deny defeat. "Never!"

With this, the turtle made one last desperate rush at Kugarejira, but the warlord simply swiped his hand to the side and that was all it took to send Raphael into the wall, damaging it enough so that he flew right into the room adjacent to t.

"I said your time was up," replied Kugarejira. "And when I say your time is up, your time is up. Farewell."

This said, the warlord raised his hand up again, charging a particularly powerful beam in his hand as Raphael looked at him defiantly.

"No... Raph!" cried Bowser, charging towards the warlord, who then redirected his aim at the king of the koopas.

However, just before Kugarejira could fire the beam, a female figure jumped from a place below the roof, a kunai in her hand that she quickly tossed at the warlord. No sooner had the warlord seen this than the strange woman jumped on him with a tanto drawn. Almost instantly, the woman was on him, raining blows on him with the small weapon with a strange kind of agility as she landed on the roof. With an unexpected kick, the woman knocked the warlord down.

The warlord's aim was thus redirected so that his death beam shot into the sky harmlessly, and before he could add any more attacks, another two figures jumped from a lower level, one of them with a bow and arrow drawn and the other holding what looked to be a fireball in his hand. The two of them launched their projectiles at the same time. By this time, though, Kugarejira had regained his bearings and managed to block both projectiles with his hands.

The two figures landed on the roof with a soft plit, and then when Bowser looked up from where he had stumbled forwards he recognized the two figures immediately.

"Huh?" he said. "Link? Mario? What are you doing here?"

"No time to explain, Bowser," said Link. "If this guy has the Orb of Halpatran, we're in big trouble!"

"How did ya guess?" asked Raphael as he emerged from the wreckage with wounds all over his body.

"We just-a did, I think..." replied Mario as Link ran over to the injured mutant.

The Hylian stood in front of the mutant and held his hand on the turtle's forehead, and then a healing blue aura surrounded the turtle, which healed all of his wounds.

"There you go," said Link.

"What is this?" asked Kugarejira. "All of you are after my orb?"

"Apparently," said Raine, who had regained some of her energy in the ensuing interlude. "And I'm pretty sure it's to keep it away from you."

"Well, we're actually on this quest, see..." said Link.

"Wait," said Bowser. "Raph and I are on a quest!"

"Really?" asked Mario. "Did-a you see-a the orb?"

"Ya better believe it!" replied Raphael.

"Oh," said Link with a shrug. "Then I guess that's more reason to kick this guy's butt than anything else."

"Enough!" cried Kugarejira angrily. "All of you shall die."

"I do not think so, sir," replied the woman who had saved Bowser in the nick of time. "Do you remember who I am?"

The warlord paused as he looked over the kunoichi. Yes, she did look familiar.

"You said your name was Kasumi," said Kugarejira. "I thought they had punished you."

"I became a kunoichi afterwards," replied Kasumi, twirling her tanto knife in her hand. "And I am here now, willing to tell you that I will not fail this time."

"Hmph," replied Kugarejira as Raine and Genis recollected their energies. "If you think that is the case, defeat me."

"Of course," said Kasumi.

Everybody readied themselves into a fighting position as Kugarejira looked at their renewed vigor in the fight.

Kasumi made the first move, opting to dash in to land a slash with the tanto that was blocked. However, she flipped back, and suddenly Kugarejira felt Sheena's cards dig into his back, Raphael running in and kicking Kugarejira in the face. Sheena, responding to the blow, sent Kugarejira flipping back, where he would have fallen off of the roof if not for the fact that he teleported back on.

However, Link's attack where he spun his sword caused considerable pain, and then from there he found himself getting pummeled by the six fighters and the two magic casters. Every so often, Genis would cast a spell, and this would add to the amount of damage being done by Mario's punch or Link's sword swipe or Raphael's rough blows and so on. In the rare opportunities that Kugarejira got to attack, he found the counterattack always did a great job of following up on him somehow. Eventually, the eight warriors managed to whittle down their opponent's health to low enough levels such that he could barely hold his own against them.

Finally, the warlord was on his knees in front of the eight fighters, looking at them and begging for mercy with his eyes alone.

Kasumi simply walked forward, tanto knife pressed against Kugarejira's throat as she looked at him.

"And here is what I should have been able to do a few years ago," said the kunoichi coldly.

And just like that, the tanto slid right across the man's throat, the blood gushing out in incredible amounts as he fell to the side and dropped the orb. The orb, being on the roof, almost rolled off of it, but with Sheena right at the edge to get it, she held it up for everybody in the area to see.

"And now we've got this thing," said the other female ninja with a smile. "So we're in good hands here."

"Finally, those villagers won't be raided anymore!" said Genis.

Bowser chuckled as he looked at the half-elven boy.

"Genis, that's not even the half of it," he said. "We've got another thingwe need to do."

"But now we can leave," said Raine as she held her staff. "And that is a good thing."

"Yep," said Raph.

"So, Bowser, what-a were you-a doing this-a whole time?" asked Mario. "And have-a you seen anybody-a else?"

"And how do you two know each other anyway?" asked Sheena inquisitively.

"Long, long story," replied Bowser. "But let's get out of here."

"Yeah," said Link as he looked around here. "This twilight is creeping me out right now."

"Oh, ya think that's bad?" asked Raphael as they entered the hole that Raphael had created when he was flung by Kugarejira before Kasumi and the other two arrived. "There was this place that was totally dark."

"Oh dear..." said Kasumi.

And the conversation continued from there as the group slowly left the palace.


	18. Chapter 17: Despair

So, the last time we were here we got a huge friggin' fight and a joining of groups. Let's get some other major events over with, and then we'll be on our merry ways. (And yes, the shit hits the fan this chapter. Or it starts to, at any rate.)

* * *

Chapter 17: Despair

Vyse, Markus, Logan, and Ganondorf all walked on in the bottom of the chasm, traversing their way past endless pools of lava.

"Man, how much more do we have to do before we finally get up to the next staircase?" asked Markus.

"I do not think it will be soon," replied Ganondorf.

Suddenly, the earth beneath them vibrated, and the four of them were barely able to scatter in random directions before a jet of lava suddenly flew up from the ground, scorching everything but the four people that were in the group.

"Yikes!" cried Vyse as the jet just as suddenly retreated into the earth. "When'll these things stop jumping out at us?"

"I don't know!" cried Logan. "What are yah askin' me for?"

"Because I don't know who else to ask," replied Vyse as the group huddled back together. "Now let's get going before another one of those things pops up again."

"Are those stairs I see?" asked Ganondorf suddenly, and the four of them turned around to find another set of stairs that were up against the wall.

"Yes," said Markus with a flat face. "Let's hope that this is not another one of those stairs that leads back down..."

The four of them advanced forwards, not knowing that something else was watching them just out of their viewpoint.

* * *

The Delphinus was dark except for the holographic projection immediately in front of the wheel. Leo, Snake, Aika, and Fina huddled close by in concentration as they searched for the signal on the hologram. Enrique stood back a little bit, not daring to move for some reason that even he could not fathom.

They had been in the lower ocean for an hour or so, and they still had not found Fina's ship in their time there. Leo was hoping they could find it soon, because nothing creeped him out more at the present moment than the wierd stingray creatures they had been fighting up to that point. How those things were able to actually float in the air was the biggest reason why they creeped the humanoid out; he had briefly wondered how his brothers would have reacted to seeing it in the first place. The fact that they had to dig a claw into the bottom of the world was also pretty disturbing, but not as much as the stingray was.

So theyhad proceeded through the bottom of the world, hoping to find Fina's ship.

After a while, the sensors on the Delphinus' metal detector went off, and thus a light went off just in front of the wheel.

"Well, looks like we got somethin' there," said Aika.

"Let's get that claw out and see," said Snake.

"I hope this is your ship, Fina," said Leo. "This place is creeping me out..."

"I figured we would run into something that would really puzzle people somewhere along the line..." said Enrique stoically. "I wonder what the people in your hometown would say to this scenario..."

The hologram showed the claw protruding from the Delphinus to prod into the mud below. When it emerged, a strange-looking object was seen being pulled up, Fina's eyes widening as she recognized the object.

"Oh my goodness!" said Fina. "That's my ship!"

"We found it!" said Leo with a sigh of relief. "Finally we can get out of here!"

"No kidding," said Aika.

Before anything else could be said, though, the ship's intercom was blasted with a loud sound.

"Ahehehehe!" cried a somewhat squeaky voice through the ship's intercom.

"De Loco!" said Enrique, everybody's faces turning to one of mild surprise.

"Hm," said Snake. "Valua's found us again."

"And in the wierdest place, too..." said Leo with a shrug. "But he's not going to get away with this!"

"Hey, I heard that!" cried De Loco's voice through the intercom. "Now, surrender or I will use my latest weapon on three members of your ship!"

"Ha!" said Aika. "If you think that's gonna work, think again!"

"All right then, let's see if you'll think again after this!" cried De Loco's voice over the intercom. "Hahahahaha!"

Suddenly, Leo, Fina, and Aika all had a strange rainbow-colored aura surrounding them.

"What the heck is going on?" asked Aika.

Suddenly, from the three of them a great light poured through, and just as suddenly as it had appeared, it dimmed away. Enrique had to walk around the hologram to make sure he was seeing things.

"Leo?" asked the prince. "Aika? Fina?"

But there was no reply, and as the prince circled the hologram he realized that they had quite literally vanished into thin air.

"Heeheeheeheehee!" sneered De Loco from the intercom. "I warped them to another dimension! And I'll do the same thing to the whole ship if you don't comply with me!"

"What do you mean?" asked Snake.

"You know perfectly well this ship could sink in another dimension!" cried De Loco as Enrique quickly walked over to the stealth agent.

The prince muttered something in Snake's ear, and then an amused smile graced the FOXHOUND agent's lips.

"Okay, fine, we surrender," said Snake, holding his hands up.

"Are you being serious?" asked De Loco's annoying voice from the intercom.

"Yes, we are," said Enrique, pretending to sound dejected. "Our lives are in your hands..."

"Heeheeheehee..." sneered the mad scientist again. "Admiral Galcian will be most pleased with this!"

The intercom then cut off, and Enrique was left to wonder something.

"Galcian?" asked the prince. "Why didn't he say my mother's name?"

"Hm..." said Snake. "That's odd. It doesn't matter, though. We'll be dead, but I think De Loco will realize next time not to warp the wrong people to certain places."

"Yes," said Enrique with a chuckle. "De Loco really did jump to conclusions when warping Fina away."

Snake chuckled in turn, pulled out a cigarrette, and lit it as De Loco's ship approached on the holographic projection.

* * *

On the alternate dimension that Fina, Aika, and Leo were in, they found themselves balancing on a small pole in the middle of a raging river. The sky around them was hued a deep purple, and there was nothing but water for the length of the horizon that they were in.

"My goodness, this just keeps getting stranger!" cried Fina over the sound of the river's rushing. "What do we do?"

"Don't ask me!" cried Leo. "I don't have a clue where we are!"

"Wherever we are, this isn't good!" said Aika. "Now Valua's going to destroy Arcadia no matter what we do!"

"And now we're gonna die!" said Leo as he saw water splashing up close to where they were. "Look!"

As Aika and Fina turned to look at what Leo pointed at, a huge monster suddenly emerged from the water, its black coloration and strangely-arranged scales all being very menacing. The monster looked like a snake, except that its scales looked very sharp and they jutted out into the air around it.

"Oh, dear, this isn't good!" cried Aika. "Damn it! Start casting spells!"

Aika suddenly shut her eyes very tightly and thought the most powerful spell she could think of. However, nothing happened around her, and when she opened her eyes, she panicked as Leo and Aika came to the same realization.

"We're not under the infuence of the moons!" cried the Silvite. "I don't understand!"

"Damn it!" said Aika. "We're gonna die!"

Before anything else could be done, however, a magic spell suddenly hit the monster in the face, and then several more spells of this nature were sent flying at the creature. It did enough damage where the monster sunk into the water as a young woman ran over the water towards it.

"Bad boy!" shouted the woman. "Bad boy! Stay down! There were no punishings today!"

The snake whimpered, and it submerged into the waters as the young woman looked at the turtle and the two women.

"Hm," said the woman. "You three don't look like anything I've seen around here. What brings you over the river Styx anyway?"

"The river Styx?" asked Leo. "As in, that river that we have to pass over to get to the underworld?"

"That's right," said woman, brown hair swaying in the slight breeze. "How did you get onto this pole?"

"We were warped here by some crazed guy!" said Fina.

"Ooh," said the woman, nodding and shutting her emerald eyes. "That's gotta be a problem. I'll take you three to Hades and I'll see what we can do about that. But enough of that. I'm Antonia."

"I'm Leo," said the turlte. "And the two girls are Aika and Fina."

"A pleasure," said Antonia as she raised his arms in front of her and simply blinked. "You can get off of the pole now."

"How are you so sure?" asked Fina.

"Just do as I say!" said an annoyed Antonia.

And all three of them let go of the pole to find that they suddenly could stand on the water much the way Antonia was standing on it.

"What did you do?" asked Aika as she stood up.

"Made it safe for you guys to walk, that's what," said Antonia. "Now come on. Let's get to some dry land before this charm wears off."

The healer walked off in a certain direction. With a shrug, Leo followed her first, followed by Fina and then by Aika as they walked on into the unknown.

Vyse, Markus, Ganondorf, and Logan all finally emerged from the gauntlet that they had been in on the other side of the chasm. The sun was hanging very low in the sky, and in front of them stood the artifact they were looking for.

"Finally..." said Ganondorf as they walked up the stairs. "We made it to the top..."

"Yeah," panted Vyse. "We made it. About time, too."

"Yeah, I was gettin' pretty tired of this too," said Logan.

"But, on the bright side, we've got the artifact." said Markus as he walked over to the pedestal on which the artifact sat. "So we're good."

"Indeed you are," said a disembodied voice from above.

Suddenly, the familiar green orb descended on the group, and then everybody frowned at its appearance.

"You..." scowled Ganondorf.

"What's the matter?" asked the orb. "Are you afraid of me?"

"Afraid?" asked Logan. "Pah. Yeh don't scare none of us."

"Why?" asked the orb. "Why do you suddenly seem to hate me? I'm trying to save the world!"

"Maybe because you're the one who's putting it at risk?" asked Markus.

"How amI putting it at risk?" asked the orb. "I'm keeping it safe!"

"And what if you are planning to steal the artifacts from us when we are dead?" asked Ganondorf, advancing towards the orb.

"Dead?" asked the orb. "I don't know what you are talking about! You are here to save the world! That's why I'm checking on you!"

"Look, we know that the Organization doesn't exist," said Vyse. "So you can stop spouting out all that baloney now!"

A silence took hold of the area that the orb was around. Ganondorf cocked his head to the side and chuckled.

"There we go," said Ganondorf. "Now tell us; who are you really?"

The orb suddenly transformed into a lady the likes of which nobody had seen before. Her long red dress ran down her legs almost seductively, and her black hair and eyes seemed ready to pull in people. The unnatural beauty of this woman repelled the four of them rather than attracted them, for something was not right with this woman.

"That will not be necessary," said the woman with a strange kind of seductive purr. "After all, you will die within the hour."

"Oh, really?" asked Ganondorf, lifting his hand up and conjuring a ball of energy. "I think not."

With this, the warlock hurled the ball of energy at the mysterious woman. However, not to be deterred, the woman held up her hand and the ball slowed until it barely touched her hand.

"What the--?" asked Vyse loudly, surprised that such a person could stop such a ball of energy.

"You underestimate my worth..." said the woman.

With this, her eyes turned a blood red when she blinked, and then she raised her hand high.

The ball of energy that Ganondorf had summoned suddenly grew in size, and the energy slowly turned into a mysterious black color as it grew in size. When the ball had stopped growing, it was so big that the ball was over both sides of the chasm.

"And now, you shall see your end!" screamed the woman, deep voice suddenly all the more disturbing as the four of them beheld her figure. "Goodbye, worthless scum!"

And then the woman brought her hand down, and with it, the ball of energy crashed into the floor with a decisive bang.

The first thing that was immediately visible from the impact of the dark ball of energy was a large crater that had formed in between both sides of the chasm. The crater sloped downward into the abyss, and suddenly the floor tiles ruptured everywhere, sending large fragments of tile flying upwards.

One of these tiles hit Vyse in the chin, and then he stumbled back into the crater where he then rolled down to his death.

His friends had no time to call his name, however, for suddenly a massive quake rocked the temple even as Vyse had begun tumbling down the crater. As the tiles flew up, pillars of earth began to rise to meet the tiles, and then everybody's balances were thrown off and they all tumbled to the ground. Logan fell down onto a very stunted and pointy pillar of earth, and this tore straight through his flesh and out the other side. His healing factor began to work quickly when suddenly the bits of tile that had been flung up flew into the faces of the three people who had fallen down. Some of them stabbed them or left scratches on their face that could not quickly be healed, and then the temple itself began to shake.

The pedestal that Markus was on suddenly tipped over, and the entire rectangular object fell onto the soldier, effectively crushing him under its weight. The artifact on top of it rolled on the ground towards the woman, and she picked it up and held her hand up.

As small portions of the roof began to fall onto Ganondorf, Wolverine, and the rest of the temple, the woman held her hand up, and then the other artifact that the group had was suddenly seen racing into her hand, and she grinned evilly.

"That makes two," said the woman. "This will make master very pleased."

As the roof of the temple began to cave in completely, the woman laughed and dissapeared with a flash of light.

Seconds later, the entire temple collapsed on itself, effectively crushing Ganondorf and Logan under its massive weight with some of the debris falling into the chasm that was in the middle of the temple.


	19. Chapter 18: Revelations

And last time, more shit hit the fan. Seriously, there's a lot going on. Oh noes!

But anyways, let's get on with the story at hand here. Here's the next chapter; enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 18: Revelation

Raph walked towards the fire, sitting down next to Bowser and Raine as the company all sat around the fire that Kasumi had made.

They had finally begun to see the light of day in the distant horizon when suddenly it went away, meaning that there was going to be a fairly long night ahead of them. This did not worry Bowser or Raphael too much, but everybody else was quite disconcerted by the twilight that was just settling in. So Raphael and Bowser had gone around, reassuring the group that everything would be all right.

But in their mutual fear, the group sat around the fire, Link sitting back almost relaxed as they gazed at the fire and the embers that danced from it. Nobody really said anything, Genis huddling close to Raine and Kasumi simply tossing a kunai in the air so that it landed into her hand ten seconds later. The silence was strange in and of itself, so Link decided to speak up about it.

"You know," said Link. "I wonder; is that sphere lying to us?"

"If it is, it ain't bein' very open about it," said Raph smugly.

"That's the whole point, silly," said Kasumi. "They seek not to inform us so that we may continue being stupid."

"It's not fair," said Genis. "Why would these things lie to you?"

"Don't ask-a me," said Mario plainly. "They-a said it. I didn't."

"And maybe they are trying to put thoughts into your head," said a disembodied voice.

Just above the fire, a green orb swooped down. At this, Link and Kasumi jumped to their feet, Mario, Bowser, and Raph all raising their eyebrows as Sheena, Raine, and Genis all slowly stood up.

"So you're that orb," said Genis slowly.

"Yes, little boy," said the orb, hovering above the flames slowly. "I assume you met one of these people here?"

"Raph and Bowser," said Sheena, her eyes squinting. "There's something wrong with you."

"Oh?" asked the orb.

"Yeah," said Raine. "You're too smug for your own comfort."

"Smug?" asked the orb. "I am not being smug. I am simply being amusing in a strange way."

"Sounds like smug to me," said Kasumi. "Something strikes me as odd; if you knew where all of the artifacts were, why did you not get them yourself?"

"What do you mean?" asked the orb slowly. "I only know where a few--!"

"Don't ya lie ta us, ya hear?" asked Raph, already losing his patience. "They said they told ya where their first thing was, and you told us where ours was. Ya know where they all are, I know it!"

"Oh?" asked the orb, as it suddenly moved away from the fire over a spot of land that was next to Raine. "You wish to know how?"

"So you're admitting you're lying to us," said Link.

"Well, since you know to much, I guess you could say that," said the orb, its voice suddenly more sinister in nature.

The orb then transformed into an enourmous gloved hand with fingers that twitched constantly. Bowser, Link, and Mario all stood their with their mouths agape when they saw the glove.

"M-master Hand?" asked Bowser. "What are you doing here?"

"No, I'm not that Master Hand," said the gloved hand. "I'm his twin."

"You-a mean, Crazy-a Hand?" cried Mario. "What in-a the world?"

"But I thought you were banished to an alternate dimension!" cried a shocked Link.

"You thought, but I wasn't," replied the gloved hand.

"Wait," said Genis. "What's going on here?"

"We'll explain later," said Link. "For now, we've gotta take this guy down!"

"Oh, you think this is the end, huh?" asked Crazy Hand. "Think again!"

Crazy Hand's fingers then twitched obscenely, and suddenly a lightning bolt came down on Sheena's person. The bolt struck the ground, but Sheena dodged to the side, glaring at the hand as she did.

"Hey!" she cried. "Watch where you aim that thing!"

"Yeah!" cried Genis, taking out his kendama quickly. "Who do you think you are? You almost killed Sheena!"

"I'm the powerful and glorious Crazy Hand!" cried the gloved hand. "And I am better than my brother thinks I ever will be!"

"Oh, we'll see about that!" cried Kasumi, drawing her tanto from its sheath, everybody else following suit as they drew their weapons. "At the end of this night, we shall see who is standing!"

Without warning, the fingers twitched again. However, this time everybody knew to run away, and so the next lightning strike was dodged.

Kasumi jumped up to the glove ready to stab it, but a flick from the hand's fingers sent her flying far away from him. When Raphael tried to get on him in a similar fashion, the turtle was also flicked away.

Bowser, ever knowledgeable, blew his fiery breath out at Crazy, who brought up a magic shield to block it and the jump that Sheena attempted on his person. This shield also blocked Genis' ground spell that sent a stalagmite flying up from the ground, the tip of the stalagmite breaking under the field.

When the shield went down, Link jumped up, an arrow strung in his bow as he prepared to fire. However, the arrow was flicked away by Crazy, as was a fireball that Mario had sent in his direction.

Kasumi jumped at Crazy again, this time with Raphael and Link jumping onto him at the same time. They were all flicked away as well, but they were not sent as far away as they had the previous time. Noticing this, Mario decided not to jump and waited for an opportunity.

When Kasumi, Raphael, Sheena and Link all jumped up to attack the hand, Mario joined in too as Genis raised his Kendama high in the air. The hand flicked the four of them away, but he was so distracted by the four of them that he was unable to dodge a wind spell that Genis had summoned where blades of wind cut into the glove, blood beginning to flow from the wounds as everybody else grinned.

Bowser breathed fire again for the shield to be put up, but this time the shield seemed less powerful, and a spell from Genis managed to break the shield quite quickly. When this happened, Link jumped on Crazy hand and cut him again. Raphael then jumped at Crazy and stabbed his ring finger multiple times, after which the hand fell to the ground and twitched.

The Koopa King shook his head and walked over to the hand, literally standing on it as he looked down at it.

"Damn, you've gotten even stupider than I remember you being," said Bowser. "Now tell us, what's going on here?"

"The Organization doesn't exist..." said Crazy slowly. "Mark my words well; the Organization does not exist!"

"Ha!" cried Raine. "I knew that Organization was nonexistant from the beginning!"

"How?" asked Crazy Hand.

"Think about it," said Raine. "Why would any sensible person seem to talk like they know everything. So now you're the ringleader?"

"Me and my friend," said Crazy slowly. "And I won't let you warn my brother about this! You come anywhere close to the Smash Mansion, and I will kill you just like my friend killed those insignificant scumbags!"

And with this, the hand teleported away, Bowser falling on his feet onto the ground and landing on the back of his shell. Link shook his head distastefully at this disappearance.

"I always knew Crazy was a coward," said Link. "But honestly? This is a new low for him!"

"So you knew Crazy," said Kasumi.

"Yeah," said Bowser as he rolled onto his stomach with Mario's assistance and stood up from there. "He was the brother of a friend of ours."

"Master Hand?" asked Sheena.

"Yep," said Link with a shrug.

"And what did this guy do?" asked Raph, his head tilting to the side in curiosity.

"It's-a very-a long story," said Mario. "But it-a began like-a this..."

* * *

_Master Hand had had enough of his younger brother, and a strange kind of glee filled him as he hovered in the witness's stand with his own brother on the other side._

_Crazy Hand had been borderline insane for a few months now, he was sure. The antics he would pull around the mansion were very insane. But what he had just done had taken the cake for Crazy being officially insane._

_And now, Master Hand was fully prepared to deliver justice on his brother._

_"Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you whatever Gods you believe in?"_

_"I do," said Master Hand, and then the prosecutor stepped forward towards the witness stand._

_"Now, did you see your brother engaged in any of these rituals?" asked the prosecutor._

_"No," said the gloved hand. "But I saw the pentagrams all over the place, and the blood smeared the walls of my bedroom quite frequently."_

_"And the blood was identified as belonging to several smashers, yes?" asked the prosecutor._

_"We found a bunch of bodies out in the shed the other day," said Master Hand somberly as his brother was shaking against his bonds. "It was very sad..."_

_"I see," said the prosecutor softly. "And the blood was needed for the sacrifices, yes?"_

_"They had been left in the shed for weeks," said the gloved hand. "I don't know what else needs to be said._

_"No more questions," said the prosecutor. The defendant's lawyer then came up in his perfect incapability that Master Hand sensed would be his brother's downfall._

_"And what makes you think the bodies were used for a satanic ritual?" asked the lawyer slowly._

_"The blood was completely drained from their bodies," said Master Hand. "The forensics found almost no fluids in their bloodstreams in the autopsies. Where else do you get that much blood, anyway?"_

_"Well, sir, I would think that--!"_

_"Objection!" said the prosecutor. "That is a statement, not a question."_

_"Sustained," said the judge, as the defendant's lawyer shook his head._

_"But don't you have the power to do the things that were done without satanic worship involved?" asked the defendant's lawyer._

_"Of course not," said Master Hand, impatient with where this was going. "I can summon gigantic bullets, but for heaven's sake, I can't slit a person's throat with thin air!"_

_"And could you...?" asked the defendant, stumbling on his words horribly. "Could you have possibly neglected the people that died."_

_"They said they were going out to town the day they disappeared," said Master Hand calmly despite his growing anger. "How was I supposed to know they were killed?"_

_Crazy Hand's lawyer sighed slowly, knowing the case was forfeit after that point._

_"No more questions," he said._

_The defendant's lawyer walked away, dejected at himself for his failure._

_The next week, Crazy was bound to a wooden stake that was going to be slid into a portal that was in front of him._

_"You son of a bitch!" cried the angry hand at Master Hand and the smashers who were watching them. "I'll be back! You'll see! And when I do come back, it'll mean death to you and your stupid company!"_

_Crazy Hand had been sentenced to be banished to an alternate dimension to remain tied to a stake for all eternity, and now was his last chance to be in the world. And the gloved hand was not taking it well, cursing at Master Hand wildly as the log was slowly pushed down a slide and into a shining portal that had a bunch of black fragments surrounding it._

_Master Hand shook his fingers slightly as the glove was rolled down the slide into the portal._

_And after a few minutes and a whole string of curses, Crazy Hand was banished from the world as the portal closed behind him._

* * *

"So, let me get this straight," said Sheena after the smashers finished their stories. "Some guy involved in invoking some evil power or whatever was banished?"

"Yes," said Link. "That gloved hand was that man."

"But this isn't very good," said Bowser. "Because we sent him to a dimension that was too far away for even us to reach..."

Kasumi, who was analyzing a kunai knife and was deep in thought about the whole thing, suddenly got an idea and started up.

"He had help," said Kasumi. "If the conditions are as you say they are, that glove should never have broken free."

"That must-a be it," said Mario with a shrug. "There should be-a no-a way he could have-a broken himself out!"

"So then, who is this other person who helped him out of there...?" asked Genis, everybody lost in thought for a few minutes.

In their thinking, a silence took hold of the group as they thought. Finally, Raphael stood up abruptly.

"Was there anybody else?" asked Raph.

"Now that you mention it..." said Link.

"Yeah, there is," said Bowser, nodding as he thought. "There was this girl they banished a long time ago for trying to kill several top-ranking officials of every kingdom I know about."

"And-a more," said Mario with a shrug.

"She must be it," said Raine with a nod as she stood up and walked over to rekindle the dying fire. "What was her name?"

"Oh, I don't remember," said Link. "It was a very long time ago, trust me."

"We didn't even know this happened until Crazy Hand went rampant," added Bowser with a hand gesture. "And even then, it was a muttering by Master Hand that only Link heard. So when he told the rest of us, we had to do our own research."

"And she was banished for almost the exact same thing as Crazy," said Link. "There was one thing, though..."

"What was that one thing, then?" asked Sheena.

"She left writing in blood on some of the walls where the people she killed dissapeared," said Link. "It said something about collecting a bunch of things and..."

Link's sentence dissolved into nothing as everybody's eyes suddenly opened widely as they realized something very important. The group looked around with shocked looks on their faces, finding confirmation of their fears in everybody else's eyes.

"We've gotta find the rest of them," said Genis quickly. "Fast."

"But why?" asked Raph, cocking his head to the side.

"If what you guys said is correct, at least sixteen other people have been pulled into this," said Genis. "We've gotta find the rest of them and tell them that this whole setup is a trick!"

"Yeah, but what if Crazy comes back?" asked Bowser as he stood up.

"Then we'll just have to kill him," said Kasumi as she put away her kunai and stood up. "It's as simple as that."

"Well, okay then," said Link as everybody that had not risen stood up. "But I don't know what'll happen if we run into Crazy again..."

The group quickly gathered the equipment they had laid out for their rest and set out towards the rising sun, hoping to find everybody else before it was too late.


	20. Chapter 19: Life

Okay, seriously, this story's been doing very well lately. I don't know how it happened. Just, I don't.

And oh my god, Obama is going to be the next president! Yay!!!!!!

But anyway, here's the next chapter. Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 19: Life

A clump of dust and a small fragment of stone fell from above and landed on a person's face. Said person woke up soon afterwards with his eyelids slightly batting as he tried to figure out what had just happened.

Then, the memories came back to him all at once; the woman, the energy ball, and the part where he had fallen into the chasm that had separated the two sides of the temple.

Instantly, Vyse realized his friends were in trouble, but at the same time he was powerless to help them. He was hot from the lava's proximity to his location, and when he tried to move around to see how much space he had he found he was not able to move very far before certain parts of his body hit various parts of the debris above him. Even if one of his friends was still alive, he doubted they would be able to hear them.

Still, the Blue Rogue was determined never to give up. When he looked around, he found that a snapped cutlass was not too far from his reach. Taking the cutlass by the blade and pulling it towards him, the rogue began banging on the rubble as loudly as he could when the cold, hard blade of the cutlass was biting into his skin.

"Hey!" yelled the air pirate, the yell penetrating the air around him. "Guys? Can you hear me? Hello?"

He had not banged for long against the debris above him, for then he heard a slight creaking noise. Hearing this, Vyse barely had time to shrink back to where he had woken up before a small bit of debris collapsed even more, effectively crushing his only method of generating noise and sending dust flying in his face.

The air pirate looked at the debris in front of him and shook his head.

"Hey!" he screamed as loudly as he could. "Help me! If anybody can hear this, help me out here!"

Vyse continued yelling at the top of his lungs for extended periods of time. As his voice grew hoarse with every yell, he refused to back down.

The Blue Rogue knew what giving up could mean in a situation like this. And he was not about to lose hope that somehow, somebody was going to save him. So he continued yelling at the top of his lungs, hoping that somehow his cries were piercing the debris above him.

* * *

In the midst of what remained of the temple, a man clad in a skin-tight suit that covered everything but his eyes and arms and a scarf that trailed behind him in the wind found himself lifting debris this way and that to find out what had happened.

As he had cleared the debris, he had come across three bodies, all of them impaled with a very small fraction of stone and also crushed under the massive weight of the debris above them. There was literally nothing left of some of the deceased's body parts but a few pools or puddles of blood and maybe a portion of cracked bone.

The worst part was that one of them looked like he could have made it; but alas, the weight of the stone and the marble pillars above him was too much, and so he had succumbed.

The mysterious black-clad man shook his head as he cleared the last of the debris.

"No survivors on this level," said the man out loud, more to himself than to the air around him. "It's time to check that depression over there."

The man walked over to the chasm, and he began lifting some portions of the debris that had piled in there as well as rolling some pieces away. As he descended, he found that the chasm was very deep, and a strange kind of heat was being given off of some of the areas.

The man took note of this; the chasm was very deep and it had pockets of some incredibly hot source that was enough to heat up a lot of stone and marble. Under these conditions, he knew it was hopeless to keep searching, but something in his intuition told him to keep searching anyway.

Looking back up to the top of the chasm, the man continued down the massive heap of marble through any opening that he was able to find or clear for himself.

As soon as he had progressed all the way down, he began to hear a soft, high pitched murmuring that seemed very distant. Tuning in to this, the man began to walk in the direction that he knew the murmur must be.

And sure enough, as soon as he had descended a short ways, the murmur became louder, and now words were intelligible through the thick layers of stone.

It was a cry for help.

Thanking his intuition for having him continue his quest, the man descended further into the area, shoving debris out of the way as he moved closer to the source of the sound. After a while of listening in to the darkness and after he had found the bottom of the chasm, he heard the murmur next to him, now as a destinctive call for help.

Seeing a small rock immediately in front of him where a strangely-colored blade lay broken, the man walked over to it and rolled it out of the way, the cries for help coming to an abrupt end as the man rolled the rock away and then knelt in front of a young man who looked to be no more than seventeen years of age. He was lucky, the stranger supposed; he had been caught in a tiny space with his foot being in an awkward position under a small series of rocks. He looked fine; there were a few signs of major injuries in the boy's legs, but otherwise he was relatively unharmed.

"Are you all right there?" asked the man, the black suit blocking his mouth from the boy's view.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," said the Vyse, voice hoarse from what must have been hours of yelling. "My legs are killing me, but I'm fine. Thanks for saving me..."

"You're welcome," said the man, who edged into the hole and began to work on freeing the boy's foot from its hold. When he did, the boy hissed in pain, but the man quickly crawled out and pulled the young man out of the passage. "What happened here?"

"Some lady came..." replied the air prate, his words trailing off as a realization came to him. "My friends! Did you find my friends?"

The man took Vyse into his arms so that his legs were hanging behind the older man, the Blue Rogue doing the rest and encircling his arms around the man's surprisingly powerful shoulders.

"They're all dead..." said the man. "I'm sorry."

Vyse looked at the stranger in the dark, sadness in his eyes as he shook his head.

"No..." said the young man softly. "That lady killed them, didn't she?"

"Well, they were under quite a few pillars, if you must know," said the man.

"I swear I'll get revenge..." Vyse said softly. "I swear it!"

"What exactly happened?" asked the older man.

"It's a long story," said the young man. "You should get us both out of here."

"All right, then," said the older man, closing his emerald eyes as he seemed to recite something in his head.

In an instant, the two of them were back onto the highest level of the temple, and then the young man blinked before he looked up.

"What was that?" asked the young man.

"You'll see later," said the older man as he set the boy on the ground. "Now, hold still. This might tingle a little."

The older man knelt down next to the boy's legs. Holding his hands out over them and reciting something in his mind, a faint blue glow came from the younger man' legs. Slowly, the younger man felt the pain in his legs subside, and after another few minutes he felt nothing there at all. To test his legs, the younger man attempted to stand up and found that he wasn't instantly falling to the ground as he was sure he would.

"Hoo," said the younger man. "I feel much better. Thanks."

"You're welcome," said the older man. "Is there something you need to do?"

"I..." said Vyse, looking around and suddenly seeing the bodies of his comerades.

This effectively stopped him as he gasped in shock.

"Oh, no..." said the air pirate as he ran over to the corpses and got on his hands and knees after looking around at all of them. "Ganondorf! Markus! Logan! No!"

The older man nodded and walked over to Vyse softly, his expression becomming angrier by the minute.

"I swear, I'll have her head for this!" he said.

"I guess something happened..." said the older man.

"Of course something happened!" cried Vyse as he quickly stood up. "I've gotta get out of here! I have things I need to tell people!"

"Slow down, slow down," said the man as he simply crossed his arms in front of his chest. "You're unarmed, and you only just got healed from a few serious injuries. I also don't know anything about what's going on, or who you even are."

Vyse opened his mouth to retaliate when he noticed that the man was right.

Rising from his position on the floor, the air pirate walked over to the man in black and nodded.

"You're right," said the air pirate. "First things first. The name's Vyse. Vyse the Blue Rogue."

The man in black nodded politely.

"And I am Ryu of the Hayabusa clan," he replied in kind. "And what happened?"

"Well, it happened like this..." began the air pirate with a hand gesture.

* * *

A strange, grey spirit hovered in the air before the small group, a warmer, yellower spirit hovering right beside him as Leo, Fina, and Aika all looked at everything in wonder.

A group of attendants surrounded the small group, and they had all introduced themselves as Samus, Logan, Markus, Ganondorf, Falcon, and Gilder, all of who seemed to know more than they did about certain things that were going on in relation to the artifacts.

In the dark space they were in, such questions did not really matter. The grey and yellow spirits morphed into the shape of an average person, and the two of them bowed down respectfully to the three strangers.

"You do still give off the aura of mortality," said the yellow spirit, a female voice emanating from it. "Nevertheless, we respect you."

"And who the heck are you?" asked Aika, her face taking on a strange expression.

"Hey, don't address my wife like that!" said the grey spirit with an angry male voice.

"Hades, calm down," said the yellow spirit as she carressed the grey spirit's shoulders lightly. "She clearly meant no harm by her statement."

"Well, I'll trust what you say..." said the grey spirit as the yellow spirit withdrew slowly. "I am Hades, and this is my wife, Persephone."

"So you're the king of the underworld..." said Leo.

"Indeed I am," said Hades. "My attendants told me you were on a journey."

"Yes," said Fina, stepping forwards. "I was sent to Arcadia to collect the Moon Crystals. I was meant to save Arcadia."

Persephone shook her head softly.

"So they had the gall to decieve you," said the spirit softly.

"What do ya mean?" asked Aika.

"The elders never wanted it for good," said Hades, shaking his head softly. "After all this time, they still haven't learned that nothing can really be perfect..."

"What do you mean?" asked Fina. "Have the elders lied to me?"

"Precisely," said Persephone with a nod. "The Rains of Destruction... your own elders caused them with the Moon Crystals."

"What?" cried Fina, she and her two friends shocked at the news. "That's not true! My elders would never lie to me!"

"Anybody is capable of deceit," said Hades slowly. "And your elders did cause the Rains of Destruction."

"So they sent her down to get the crystals so they could call the Rains of Destruction again?" asked Leo.

"Indeed," said Persephone slowly.

"How could they?" cried Aika, visibly angered at this development. "They think that just because the world isn't perfect means that they have the right to destroy it? What is this?"

"Don't ask me," said Hades with a shrug as he moved around. "I would not know."

"But wait..." said Fina. "The crystals are with Enrique and Snake, and they got captured by Valua. So that means..."

"Oh no," said Leo, shaking his head in disbelief. "Galcian planned to call the Rains of Destruction so he could take over the world!"

"Of course!" cried a loud voice from the middle of nowhere.

"Shut it, Bison!" screamed Hades so loudly that the ground trembled with his yell.

All was silent for two seconds as everybody regained their bearings.

"So this means that the world is in trouble!" cried Fina.

"Not exactly," replied Persephone. "There is one more twist to this tale."

"There is?" asked Aika. "What is it?"

"Look to your items," said the female spirit. "You shall find your answer there."

Without missing a beat, Cupil unwound from Fina's wrist where it had been curled up, and then it belched out a red, a green, and a blue crystal one by one. Each crystal clattered to the floor harmlessly, and Fina, Aika, and Leo all looked down at the crystals and back up at the spirits before they looked to each other.

"We had the crystals!" said the energetic girl loudly. "I knew we were doing something right!"

"So the world is safe after all," said Leo.

"Indeed," said Hades. "And now, Leo, I believe you had a quest of your own to collect some artifacts to save the universe, right?"

"W-what?" cried Leo as he looked to the great spirit. "How did you know my quest?"

"Wait, so your quest involved collecting stuff too?" asked Aika, expression somewhat sullen as she said this.

"Uh, yeah..." said the turtle, rubbing the back of his head and closing his eyes sheepishly.

"That does not matter now, though," said Persephone. "The matter is that you have been betrayed as well."

"Oh, dear," said Fina, shaking her head and rolling her eyes with annoyance ridden all over her sapphire eyes.

"This is starting to get annoying," said Leo. "I think I know where this is going; the organization doesn't exist, the people that sent me on this quest are going to steal the items when I have them, and so on."

"Essentially, yes," said Hades with a slight chuckle. "I didn't expect you to figure it out so quickly."

"Hey, wait a minute!" said a confused Aika. "What's going on here?"

"There is a prophecy written in the stars," said Persephone. "It tells of twenty warriors that will rise up and defend the universe from the greatest evil it has ever seen."

"There are these two, you see," said Hades. "They heard about the prophecy, and they got the first group of twenty they could together so they could eliminate them so that no heroes would rise up against their schemes. They actually weren't too far off, but at this point all of the twenty told in the prophecy have survived."

"Wait," said Aika. "Would you know who some of the twenty are?"

"Yes," said Hades. "I cannot tell you all of them; however, I can tell you that Vyse is one of the twenty."

"He is?" said Fina.

"So he's still alive!" cried Aika, jumping into the air happily. "I knew it!"

"And what about my brother Raph?" asked Leo. "Is he part of the twenty?"

"Yes," said Persephone. "Actually, all of your brothers are part of the twenty."

"Oh my, really?" asked Leo.

"Yes, but somebody needs to go get them," said Hades with a wink.

"Wait, so we'll get to meet Leo's family?" asked Fina. "Count me in on it!"

"Of course, Fina," said Leo. "So, we'll have to go by New York first then?"

"Yes," said Persephone. "Then, you must convene with the rest of the twenty and stop whatever evils are bound to shake the earth."

"Okay," said Leo with a rare smile. "I've just got one question."

"What's up?" asked Hades.

"When do we leave?" asked the turtle.

* * *

Ryu and Vyse both ran through the desert, searching for anybody else that might be there.

The air pirate could not complain at all about his legs. They were feeling perfectly fine when they had walked out of the temple, and Vyse had an endless stream of thanks for the shinobi.

However, they were both running at a very fast pace through the desert in the hopes that there was still somebody there. They hoped this was the case, as they both knew what could have happened if the other groups did not find out fast enough.

So the two of them ran through the desert, Vyse getting exhausted quickly from lack of water and food. Finally, the pirate had to stop to catch his breath, Ryu looking at him from behind the silver-lined opening where his eyes were visible.

"Not used to this, are you?" asked the shinobi softly.

"No," said Vyse with a headshake as he panted heavily. "Normally I'd just get on a ship and go."

"But a ship can't really survive on land," said Ryu as he sat down. "Unless...?"

"I'm still not sure how your ships work," said Vyse with a shrug. "Our ships fly in the air."

"Then that might be the problem," said the shinobi with a nod. "Our ships sail in the water."

"They do?" asked Vyse, trying to imagine a sea of nothing but water in it and seeing everything he could see submerged in an abnormally high wall of water. "Then where's the land?"

"Above the ocean, of course," said Ryu.

"Okay, I won't try to figure this out," said Vyse. "What happened around here?"

"You should know that," said Ryu.

The shinobi would have continued with his anecdote, but a faint glimmer in the distance caught their attention.

"Ryu?" asked the blue rogue as the man in black stood up.

"I think we might have a potential candidate for seeing somebody who knows about this mess," said Ryu as three figures approached in the horizon.

"Oh, good," said Vyse, gathering his bearings and walking towards the group slowly.

When the two of them came closer, they found that the group was made of two girls and a very, very large man who all had weapons stored on their backs. The smallest girl, who had orange ponytails on the sides of her head, looked at the two of them and stopped walking, after which she indicated Ryu and Vyse's presence in the area to the other two. When the man and the somewhat older woman looked at them, they both put on puzzled expressions. When Ryu and Vyse approached, the older girl, who had blue hair, struck a pose.

"And what're you guys doing in the middle of the desert?" asked the woman.

"You guys haven't been visited by any green spheres lately, have you?" asked Vyse quickly.

"We've seen them, yeah," said the burly man heartily. "What's it to you?"

"Okay, they're lying to you," said Vyse. "There was this one sphere--!"

"Whoah, calm down!" said the large man with a soothing gesture. "Slow down! I don't even know if you're talking about the right thing here!"

"The green spheres?" asked Ryu calmly. "He was visited by several along with his three friends."

"Three friends, sir?" asked the blue-haired woman. "Where're the other two, then?"

"Actually, all three of my friends got killed by that sphere," said Vyse slowly. "And I barely made it out alive."

"And you expect Lina and friends to believe this?" asked the orange-haired girl. "That's stupid!"

"Yeah!" said the burly man again. "I'll bet you're in the Organization!"

"W-what?" asked Vyse, taking a step back. "But that doesn't exist!"

"Of course it does!" said the blue haired woman, pulling the large scythe from her back as she walked forward. "The orb told us so!"

"Wait a minute!" cried Vyse as he walked back. "Doesn't it look like the orb knows too much?"

This effectively stopped the woman in her tracks, and then she considered the pirate's words.

"You know, now that you talk about it like that..." said the woman.

"It did know everything about everything..." said the burly man, who had also begun to think. "So that means..."

"Hey, you're right!" said the orange-haired girl as she jumped up with the realization. "How come that orb didn't just kill us?"

"It no doubt had a purpose," said Ryu calmly, having not moved an inch from his spot. "Whatever that purpose is, it cannot be good at all."

"Well, duh," commented the blue-haired woman, rolling her eyes flamboyantly at the comment. "But until we figure this out, we're joinging forces?"

"Pretty much," said Vyse. "We'll exchange stories later."

"Okay then," said the large man as he stepped forward and held a hand out to Vyse. "The name's Largo."

"And I'm Serene," said the woman as she bowed down. "And the girl is Lina."

"Hey!" cried the girl impatiently. "Lina can do her own introductions!"

Vyse chuckled softly as he saw the girl's brief tantrum as he shook the berserker's hand.

"I'm Vyse," said the pirate. "And my friend is Ryu."

"Okay then," said Serene. "Let's go somewhere for the day and hear your stories!"

"Sounds like a plan to me," said Vyse.

"And if we find any contradictions, we're going to do stuff to you, so you better watch out!" cried out the woman loudly.

Vyse stood there for a few seconds with confusion riddling his face. As the group sauntered off, Ryu walked over to the air pirate and patted his shoulder.

"They will find you correct," said Ryu. "I'm sure of it."

Vyse nodded and the group of five walked off towards the nearest oasis.

* * *

Leo, Fina, and Aika all stood in front of the warp portal that was surrounded by the black shards of an orb that would have teleported them anywhere. As Hades and Leo were busy conversing, Fina and Aika both concerned themselves with the man that had claimed he was from Arcadia.

"So let me get this straight," said Aika. "You and Vyse were on Daccat's Island as well?"

"Pretty much," said the larger man. "And then we found this black orb in the treasure chest, and before we kew it we were on some quest to save the universe."

"But you were separated by the warp," said Fina.

"Yeah," said Gilder with a shrug, red trenchcoat rising with the shrug. "I actually didn't find out where he was until I died. Pretty sad, huh?"

"Yeah," said Aika with a nod. "At least he's still alive!"

"Yep, that's a good thing," said Gilder with a nod. "Especially considering he almost died there."

"I hope we can find him soon," said Fina with a nod.

"I hope you guys do too," said Gilder, looking over to the warp portal and seeing the humanoid turtle approaching the two girls.

"Well, are you ready for New York?" asked Leo with a smile on his face.

"You bet!" cried Aika excitedly.

"I can hardly wait to see it myself," said Fina with a smile and a nod.

"Okay then, let's go," said Leo.

The two girls looked over to Gilder and bowed respectfully.

"Nice to meet you!" cried Aika.

"Same here!" said Gilder.

After a quick exchange of parting bows, the three of them took a deep breath at the black portal before them.

And then, Leo, Fina, and Aika all walked into the dimensional warp one by one, their bodies dissapearing from the underworld as the portal closed behind Fina.


	21. Chapter 20: Coming Together Again

Okay, so this will be quite a trip, I'm sure of it. Let's get moving here shall we?

* * *

Chapter 20: Coming Together Again

When Aika and Fina both walked through the place, they found themselves in a very dark place that smelled absolutely horrible. Leo, who was used to this, lifted the lid of the place they were in, and was greeted by the familiar sight of a New York alleyway.

"Ew!" cried Aika. "You should have at least told us we would be teleporting into a dumpster! Yuch!"

"Hey, don't blame me!" said Leo angrily as he stepped out of the dumpster. "They said I would be returned to where I started this whole journey! I didn't know it would be so exact!"

"This is indeed very disgusting," said Fina as she too stepped out of the the dumpster with Fina following behind. "So, where are we now?"

"We are back home," said Leo, stretching his hands out into the air. "Girls, welcome to New York City."

Aika and Fina both looked around and shrugged, walking to Leo and patting him on the shoulder.

"Okay," said Aika. "This is pretty boring..."

"Oh, you think so?" asked Leo, facing the two girls. "I'll see what you think after seeing this!"

The turtle suddenly grabbed the two girls by their waists, and the two of them yelped as they suddenly faced the ground.

"Hang on tight," said Leo. "This will be a pretty rough ride..."

And with that, Leo bounded up the wall as deftly as anybody could, jumping off of the bricks onto another wall just across the alley. As Aika and Fina saw the distance between them and the ground decrease, they suddenly realized just how high up they were. The dumpster they had jumped out of became nothing more than a box, and all of the little things in the alleyway suddenly became much smaller. From what this was, the girls were unsure, but both felt a little stranger as they climbed the building.

They were snapped out of their reverie as Leo jumped off of a wall and finally landed on a rooftop somewhere in the city. Leo then positioned the girls upright with their heads in the right place as they looked around at the sight around them.

"This, girls, is New York," said Leo, gesturing at the view.

Aika and Fina were taken by what they saw. From the rooftop, they were able to make out the shapes of buildings from which a thousand lights emanated like torches in the night sky. Some of these buildings were unbelievably tall, as the height of some of the lights suggested. The two Arcadians were both taken at this sight, and they could not help but feel delighted at this marvel that was before them.

Before they could comment on it, however, Leo placed a hand on both of their shoulders, and then he gestured towards the other side of the building, where not too far off they saw a huge body of water, all of the little lights glowing on the surface of the water as it rippled slightly from its contact with ships. The brilliance of some of the light was startling to the two of them, but the ships that floated gracefully over the water was a sight within itself.

"And that is our ocean," said Leo softly. "Welcome to my world, girls."

"My goodness..." said Fina. "This place is amazing!"

"Wow!" said Aika, holding her hands out wide to the spectacle before her. "This place is awesome! I don't think I'm gonna regret coming here at all!"

"I didn't think so either," said Leo with a chuckle. "I think I know where we are now, and I think we know where to find some people that I know."

"Really?" asked Fina.

"Yeah," said Leo. "And it'll be a place where the two of you can get a nice, warm shower after that dumpster."

"Yeah, that would be good," said Aika. "So, where is this person's place?"

"I'll take you there," said Leo, walking up to them before Fina laid a hand on his chest softly. The turtle looked at her, confused as he saw this.

"Please, not again," said Fina. "We would rather much ride on your back."

"No problem then," said Leo, turning around as Aika and Fina both figured out how they could ride on the turtle's back. "Get on!"

The two girls nodded to each other before jumping onto Leo's back, a pair of arms grasping around both shouders so that their legs hung loosely from behind them. Leo grabbed both sets of legs, and then looked forward.

Leo exhaled and inhaled fairly briefly, and before either of them knew what was happening the turtleman was leaping and bounding across the rooftops of New York City, carrying the two girls with him as they traversed the city in the middle of the night.

* * *

The turtle finally stopped bounding over the rooftops after a while, and then he set Aika and Fina down on the roof of the building they were on.

"Aw, why'd you stop?" asked Aika. "That was so much fun!"

"We're at my friend's place," said Leo.

"Ah, okay," said Aika, nodding as Leo walked to the edge of the building. "So how do we get there?"

"Simple," said Leo. "We climb down the building."

"What?" asked Fina, quite alarmed at this. "Are you serious?"

"Hey, they have staircases on the sides of these buildings," said Leo with a reassuring smile. "It won't hurt too much!"

"Well, okay," said Aika nervously. "But somehow, I've got a bad feeling about this..."

The girls walked over to the edge of the building, and to verify Leo's word, they looked down to find a wire staircase that rusted that wound down several stories below them into the alleyway. With this, Aika suddenly began to laugh.

"What's so funny?" asked Leo.

"No..." said Aika, still laughing at herself. "I can't believe I didn't trust you on that!"

"Don't worry about it," said Leo as he helped Fina down onto the fire escape, her feet landing on the iron staircase with a soft click. Aika jumped down soon afterwards, a rather loud slam resulting from her landing on the staircase.

"Quiet!" Leo augmented this exclamation with a gesture at Aika. "We can't have the rest of the apartment waking up to find us here!"

"Uh, okay..." said Aika.

Leo went down the staircase first, Fina and Aika following close behind. After walking down a few floors, Leo stopped in front of one of the windows by the staircase, and then he brought a fist up to the window and knocked on the glass as hard as he could.

The girls glanced at each other briefly, shrugging as they waited in complete silence for a few seconds.

Quite a few seconds later, the light on the other side of the window was turned on, and a rather burly man with black hair walked into the room, rubbing his eyes groggily before opening them. The shock in his face was apparent when he saw Leo on the other side of the glass. The window then slid promptly upwards, the man looking at Leo disbelievingly.

"Leo?" asked the man. "Are ya there?"

"Yes, Casey," replied Leo nonchalantly, stepping into the apartment. The burly man would have closed the window, but Leo gestured him to keep it open. "Mind my friends, please."

"Your what?" asked the burly man, looking back at the window to see Aika and Fina both step into the apartment.

As the girls entered, the large man gave the two of them a funny look, and after a few seconds of feeling his stare on her back, Aika turned around with an annoyed expression on her face.

"What's your problem?" asked Aika.

"Leo, what the hell happened?" asked the large man. "Ya came here with these two girls, they smell like crap, they're dressed all wierd, and on top of that I don't see Raph anywhere with ya!"

"Okay, long story short, Raph and I found something in this dumpster, and before I know it I'm in this other place where I ran into my friends here, and on top of that--" rolled of Leo quickly.

"Whoa whoa whoa, hold up!" said the large man, holding his hands up. "Ya mean to tell me that you weren't even on this planet?"

"Apparently," said Leo with a shrug. "But I digress. Fina, Aika, this is Casey Jones. Casey Jones, these two are Aika and Fina."

"Nice ta meet ya," replied Casey, taking Aika's hand and shaking it vigorously. "Lemme go wake up April! She'll be thrilled ta see ya!"

The burly man known as Casey Jones rocketed back out of the room, but before anything else could be said he walked back in leading a young red-headed woman into the room. At first, she had to rub the sleep out of her eyes, but when she set her eyes on Leo she knew there was no doubt that it was him.

"Leo!" cried April, almost happy to see him. "You're alive! We've been looking all over for you! Where have you and Raph been?"

"It's a long story," said Leo with a shrug. "But basically, I don't know where Raphael is, and somehow I got involved in this quest to save the universe with these two girls."

"These two...?" asked April, her gaze suddenly turning towards Aika and Fina as the more energetic girl began to get progressively more and more annoyed. "Ah. I'm sorry about that."

The news reporter walked over to the two Arcadians, presenting her hand to the two of them.

"I'm April O'Niel," said the young woman ecstatically. "Who are you girls?"

"I'm Aika, and the other one's Fina," replied Aika, shaking April's hand.

"Pleasure to meet you both," said Fina with a graceful smile on her face as she shook April's hand.

"So, ya got a lot ta tell us now," said Casey. "Where've ya been, where're these girls from, and where's Raph?"

"I already told you guys, I don't know where Raph is," said Leo. "And it's an awfully long story, too."

"Yeah, and before we tell that I think we could really do with a shower..." said Aika.

"What, have ya been hidin' out in a dumpster for a couple of hours?" asked Casey sardonically.

"Casey!" reprimanded April.

"No, he's kind of right," said Fina slowly. "The only problem is, it was more like a few minutes than a couple of hours..."

"In any event, of course you may use the shower," said April. "But we're not talking until you girls come out. Would you like me to prepare anything while you're in there?"

"Like in, food?" asked Aika, her eyes glistening with a blatant desire written all over them.

"Yeah," said Casey.

"Oh my god, I'd love some!" cried Aika. "It's been ages since I last ate!"

"Now that you mention it, I am feeling kind of hungry as well," said Fina.

"All right then," said April with a cheery smile on her face. "I'll prepare something while you girls are in the shower. We've got a lot to talk about..."

"Oh no," said Leo, noticing the slight trailing of April's last sentence. "Something happened to my family, didn't it?"

"Yeah," said Casey. "But we'll talk about you first."

Leo nodded, but as April guided Aika and Fina to the bathroom, the queesy feeling in his stomach had begun to settle in, and somehow he knew that his family was in big trouble.

* * *

Vyse, Largo, Ryu, Serene, and Lina all sat around in a circle once they had arrived at the nearest oasis. Vyse had just finished telling the tale of his adventures with Markus and the rest of his friends up to the point when Ryu saved him, and the only other witness to this story was the setting sun and the clouds around it.

"So, let me get something straight," said Serene. "We've been fooled for all this time?"

"Yep," said Vyse. "So now, we know we need to find people."

"Wait," said Ryu. "What if everybody has found out?"

"Then we need to come together at some point, right?" asked Largo. "I mean, if we're going to meet with destiny here, we need to find the other twenty or we'll be in bad hands here."

"True," said Ryu with a shrug, emerald eyes closing briefly. "But what if they are repelled by us?"

"Naw," said Lina, waving a hand at the idea. "They're probably already together by now."

"I hope so..." said Ryu.

"You better believe they are," said a disembodied voice loudly.

"Aw, no!" cried Vyse, slowly standing up and raising his fists.

However, instead of the green orb Vyse had expected, a pale yellow mist emanated down onto the ground in front of them.

"Wha..." asked Serene as the rest of the rather amazed group stood up. "Who're you?"

"I would be the queen of the underworld," said the yellow mist. "You may call me Persephone."

"Wait, you co-rule the underworld?" asked Largo. "Wierd..."

"So what are you here for, if you're not that other chick in the green balls that've been visiting us here?" asked Serene.

"I am here to aid you on your quest," said the mist quietly. "By now, there are four factions of heroes that are coming together as one large faction."

"So people have been coming together," said Ryu as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"See?" cried Lina. "Told ya!"

"However, they must pass trials that are greater than themselves," said the yellow mist. "One faction needs your help, and they need it quickly."

"Okay," said Vyse with a shrug. "So, what are we up against?"

"You are up against a very powerful person by the name of Oroku Saki," replied the mist as she shifted into a map of a strange place. "Within this faction, he is better known as 'The Shredder'."

"Oh boy," said Largo with a slightly aghast look on his face. "With a name like that, the other faction will definitely need the help."

"His goal is to rule the world, and he is one of the most ruthless criminals in the streets of the place I am about to send you to," added Persephone. "His underlings are very agile, but the man himself is unbelievably powerful."

"So we have to go in there, help the other faction, and call it a day?" asked Serene with a shrug. "Sounds like a plan to me. When do we get started?"

"Whoa, hold on Serene," said Vyse, holding his hands out in front of him. "How do we know we can trust this thing?"

"Well, Vyse, I've got a secret for you," said the mist. "Two of the people in this other faction happen to be your friends..."

The realization hit Vyse like a ship from the Armada, and then he stared blankly at the mist.

"Aika and Fina are there?" asked the air pirate.

"Yes," said Persephone. "They will be in trouble very soon, I will tell you that much."

"Oh my god..." said Vyse, stepping back in shock at this. "They're alive! They're alive!"

"Well, there you go," said Ryu with a wink. "Your friends are alive. When do we leave?"

"Now, in fact," said Persephone.

The mist migrated to a spot next to the oasis, and then suddenly a black portal appeared out of nowhere, beckoning to the five of them to enter. Lina, Largo, and Serene all walked up to it and paused as Vyse and Ryu followed suit.

"So, can we trust you?" asked Largo.

"Definitely," said the mist. "In fact, let me give you this."

From within the mist came a sudden pulsation of light. Ryu quickly held a hand up and caught a small medallion on a string. He held it, and Vyse looked on as well as the ninja examined it.

"What does it do?" asked the ninja.

"If you ever need help, hold this medallion in the air, and all of you will gain powers beyond your measure," said the voice. "Think of it as a booster."

"All right, then," said Serene with a smile. "Thanks."

"You are welcome," replied the mist. "Now go! Destiny awaits!"

With this, the golden mist slowly dissipated into nothing, leaving the black warp gate behind for the group to enter.

"Well, looks like we've got no other choice," said Largo.

"Lina's scared..." said the little girl softly.

"Don't worry, Lina," said Serene comfortingly. "We'll all be here."

"Okay..." said the little girl.

And then, the five of them walked into the black gate one by one, and then they left the strange place they had been in for the longest time for good.

* * *

"So then, we were teleported back to the dumpster I had started this crazy adventure in, and then I came over here. That's basically the whole story."

Leoardo had sat down on one of the couches in the apartment, and Fina and Aika had eaten some microwave pizza. The girls were in bathrobes as their clothes were in the laundry to rid it of all of the stuff it had acquired in the dumpster. The Blue Moon Crystal laid on a coffee table, the blue glimmer resounding faintly in the apartment as the night wore on. The three of them had told their story to April and Casey, who were sitting on the other couch in the small apartment, April glancing at the clock every so often to make sure that the girls were not wearing overly-hot clothes when they came out of the laundry. As Leo finished his story, Casey nodded with his elbows on his legs.

"I'm tellin' ya, man, that's pretty crazy," said Casey. "I would've had a hard time believin' it if it was anybody else."

"Yeah," said April in reply. "Not to mention the blue crystal thing you have with you; that helps too."

"So that's our side of the story," said Fina. "You said something about Leo's family?"

"I didn't, but he did," said Casey. "Yeah, about your family..."

"What about them?" asked Leo, bracing himself for the worst and hoping for the best. "What happened?"

"The Shredder came back while you were gone," said April.

"The Shredder?" asked Aika. "Who's that?"

"Oh, no..." said Leo. "So the Foot Clan is back in action?"

"Yes," replied April with a nod.

"Wait, I still don't get it!" cried Aika. "Who's the Shredder?"

"He's the leader of a very dangerous criminal organization here," said Leo softly. "What did he do?"

"While you were gone, there was a raid on the lair," said April.

"Your brothers and I were lookin' everywhere for ya," said Casey. "And when I called them this one time, they wouldn't pick up the phone."

"So you went down to the lair and what did you see?" asked Leo.

"The whole place was trashed real good," replied the Brooklyn native nervously. "And we also found this note talkin' about holdin' families hostage or something."

"Oh, no!" said Fina, recoiling from the shock factor. "That's terrible!"

"Oh, no..." said Leo. "What do they want from me?"

"They want you to go to an abandoned factory complex to do battle in," said April worriedly. "It's a good thing you came back tonight, too; tomorrow at sunrise was the cutoff date for you to be at the complex before they killed your family, and it's currently 12:01 at night."

"What?" cried Leo, standing up abruptly. "No! I can't let them do that! I won't let them do that!"

"Yeah!" added Aika in kind, jumping up as Fina stood up slowly. "Get our clothes out of the laundry; we're taking those guys out!"

"Okay..." said April as she stood up. "I hope the dry cycle is almost finished..."

With this, April went into a room to the side as Casey stood up as well.

"Ya want me to help?" asked the burly man quickly.

"No," said Leo. "I want you and April to stay here no matter what. Aika, Fina, get your stuff; we'll be leaving as soon as you get your clothes on."

"Yeah, they're acceptably dry," said April as she walked out of the area with Aika and Fina's clothes folded up nicely.

"Okay, that's good," said Fina, the two of them grabbing their outfits and rushing to the bathroom to change.

"Why, though?" asked Casey. "I can help ya!"

"Casey, please," said Leo. "If all of us get killed here, then who's going to defend New York? If anything comes up, I'll get the word to you somehow. That, I promise."

"But are you sure you'll survive?" asked April with worry etched on her face.

"Hades told me that me and my brothers were part of the 20," replied Leo assuringly. "I'll survive, I know it."

"Well, all right," said Casey with a defeated shrug. "We'll trust ya on this one. But if ya die on us, I'll never forgive ya!"

Just a few seconds after Casey said this, Fina and Aika walked back into the room wearing their normal clothes, and Aika held her boomerang as Fina unleashed Cupil to feed on the moon crystals once again.

"So, are we ready?" asked Aika.

"Yes," said Leo. "Where is this abandoned factory complex?"

"It's just outside of Brooklyn," said April, finding a sheet of paper and handing it to Leo. "Those are the directions. May God be with you and your friends, and please get Mikey, Don, and Splinter back to us safe and sound!"

"Sure thing, April!" said Aika cheerfully as they walked towards the way they had entered.

"Good luck!" said Casey.

And then Leo opened the window, the three of them climbed onto the fire escape, and then Leo got Aika and Fina onto his shell before the three of them were off to the abandoned factory complex in the dead of night.


	22. Chapter 21: A World in the Skies

Okay, so now that we've gotten set up for one epic battle, let's go to our other peeps to see how they're doing, m'kay? Let's go!

* * *

Chapter 21: A World in the Skies

"Despicable."

"Hey, don't blame it on us. Blame it on your admiral for warping the stuff you needed away."

"Shut up! This is your faut that we cannot summon the Rains of Destruction!"

"And how is it our fault? I do believe that taking over the world is as foolish an intention as ever."

A loud slap resounded in the large chamber, and an angry man glared at the two people that were tied down angrily.

"Silence! You will learn not to take us lightly! We will get those crystals back at any cost!"

A simple chuckle in reply was all the captor got from his somewhat defiant captives.

Snake and Enrique were both tied to a floating crystal off to the side that had been lowered for the use of interrogation. Just ahead of them stood Admiral Galcian of the Valuan Armada, heaving angrily as he looked on at De Loco trying to create an interdimensional portal to follow the other three victims into the place the mad scientist had warped them to. A short distance away stood Ramirez, quite upset with this turn of events that had resulted in De Loco warping their means of taking over the world across not one, but two dimensions since they had apparently gotten very smart with them. Snake and Enrique had been quick to mock De Loco in front of Galcian and Ramirez for warping away the Moon Crystals as well as the three people that could have helped the world of Arcadia more, and when this little slipup was confirmed by Ramirez, the admiral was quick to force the scientist to find a way across dimensions.

The room itself was almost quite large. In the center was a strange kind of circular altar for holes for the Moon Crystals. So far, only three slots were filled with crystals; if the other three were put in there, the city would eventually be turned into a giant mechanical monster known as the Silver Gigas. The rest of the room was literally one big unit; floor and wall alike were colored a strange silver with all sorts of electrical tubes embedded in the walls. The whole scene was eerie to the agent, and so he chose to remain quiet for as long as possible.

Snake looked to the prince of Valua with a shrug.

"I don't know what they've got up in their asses," whispered the agent as softly as he could.

"Do not ask me," replied Enrique in kind. "I myself am quite puzzled why they would jump to other dimensions to find those things."

"They're probably desperate," replied Snake with a shrug. "That's probably what it is."

"There is something bigger going on here, I know it," replied Enrique.

"Ahehehehe!" burst out De Loco suddenly, small beady eyes seeming to glow behind his little defensive husk of glass and under the strange purple hair as he stood back in front of a rather large device. "I've done it!"

"But does it work?" asked Ramirez, a hint of annoyance showing in his face.

"Oh, but of course!" replied the mad scientist as he marvelled the circle of black energy he had managed to create from a very small amount of tools. "All of my inventions work well!"

"Almost too well if you ask me," sneered the Foxhound agent from his bindings.

"Ignoring what that despicable agent said for a second, yes they do," replied Galcian. "Now, I shall go into this world and see if I can find them."

"I shall go with you, my lord," replied Ramirez, stepping forwards gracefully.

"No," replied the older admiral steadily. "We cannot afford to lose Soltis. You will stay here with De Loco to guard this place until my return with the crystals."

"But..." replied Ramirez, a hint of uncertainty in his voice.

Snake could not help but send a confused stare at Enrique, who responded in kind to this strange gesture that both of them knew was not characteristic of the otherwise stoic man before them.

"No buts," replied Galcian. "Stay, and watch over Soltis and the prisoners for me."

"Yes, sir," said Ramirez, an air of slight disappointment radiating from the Silvite's voice as Galcian nodded.

"De Loco, you shall keep this thing running at all times," added the admiral. "That is all."

"No problem, sir," replied the scientist, feeling it necessary to add a little diabolical laugh to the end of the sentence.

Galcian bowed to his two underlings, and without another word he stepped through the mass of black energy that De Loco had created. A light hum sounded from the mass before Galcian dissapeared fully, having entered another dimension with a simple step. After several seconds of silence, Ramirez turned to his prisoners, rubbing his hands together.

"And now, there is nothing left but to watch for anything that could be in the way," said the Silvite. "I don't want to see either of you move, got it?"

"Or else what?" asked Snake with a wink.

"Or else you shall both be killed," replied Ramirez with a mocking gesture similar to that of Snake's. "Understood?"

Both of the prisoners were silent after this question, knowing not to push their luck with Ramirez. After a brief silence, Ramirez simply waved his hand at them and turned to face the pedestal that resided in the center of the room. Three of the Moon Crystals were placed in there, those crystals being the Yellow, Blue, and Silver crystals. Snake and Enrique were surprised to learn that fragments of the Silver Crystal came from the souls of Silvites themselves, so they realized that De Loco had also unwittingly saved Fina from a terrible fate.

With Ramirez on watch, the two of them dared not say anything at all, instead holding their tongues as they watched the boring life whiz around them as they were lifted back up to the position that the floating crystal was before they were sent back down to earth.

* * *

Sheena poked the fire yet again with a stick as the group had fallen asleep all around her.

The young ninja had not gotten any sleep at all lately, probably due to the fact that there was not much sleep to be had over the revelation they had reached. Not only was the mastermind of this whole plot crazy, but he was also beaten by them the first time they fought him. If they were supposed to be fighting that hand with more people than that, Sheena was already feeling sorry for the gloved hand; he would get his butt handed to him within a minute into the fight.

However, Sheena decided not to concentrate on this, but instead poked the fire again to keep her mind off of it.

As she did, though, she thought she felt an audible little scratch behind her. She looked behind her for a second before shrugging and returning to poking the fire.

When she felt cold, wet fingers on her shoulders, she was so frightened that she let out an incredibly loud scream. Her resulting springing up to her feet resulted in her tripping over the various condiments that Raine had seen it necessary to take with them, all of them falling over with an unbelievably loud clatter that woke up the rest of the group quickly.

"For the love of God, woman, keep it down!" cried Bowser angrily as he bolted upright.

"Good grief..." said Link as he rubbed his head and stood up as Raphael growled angrily beside him. "Great going, Sheena!"

"It's not my fault!" replied the flustered summoner as she frantically looked around at everybody that was slowly rising. "I felt something cold touch my skin!"

"You can blame that on--"

"My goodness, it's a grey mist that talks!" cried Raine quite suddenly as she jumped up and literally fondled what seemed to be a grey mist in the form of a human. "I must examine this specimen more closely! Ah, see, it's a spirit! So this must be important!"

"H-hey!" cried the mist with an apalled look on its face. "Stop touching me!"

Everybody felt unbelievably embarassed by the teacher's actions, such that they just stared at the scene without doing anything.

"Is she always like dis?" asked Raph.

"And I've been trying so hard to keep her from obsessing over things, too..." muttered Genis defeatedly.

The fondling and lectuing from Raine went on for quite a while, with the spirit showing its apparent disgust. This display finally ended when an annoyed Mario finally walked up to the professor and smacked her hand as hard as he could.

"Ow!" cried Raine, recoiling her hand quickly and staring at Mario angrily. "What was that for? You were--"

"Stop-a it!" cried Mario angrily. "We're-a getting-a tired of this-a treatement already! Stop-a touching him!"

"Thank you, good sir," replied the spirit as Raine reluctantly stepped back from the spirit. "For the record, my wife would not appreciate it if she had seen that."

"Your wife?" asked Raine, suddenly sparked back into her ruin mode. "Oh, I must find out--"

A loud slap resounded through the area, Raine clutching her cheek where Raphael's three-fingered hand had connected with her soft, tender flesh. The turtle was exhaling rather harshly, giving the professor a wild look.

"Stop it with that bullshit already!" cried Raph. "He's here ta tell us somethin', not for you to get yer hands all over 'im! Now shut up and listen!"

"Honestly..." said Kasumi as she rolled her eyes.

"Raph, did you really need to slap her?" asked an even more annoyed Genis.

"What?" asked Raph. "If ya can't get a girl to shut up, ya do it the hard way!"

"Something tells me you're going to get hit really hard in your privates one of these days..." said Sheena as she shook her head.

"Anyways, now that we've somehow gotten her out of that little mode she was in, you were saying?" asked Kasumi to bring the conversation back on track.

"Ah, yes," replied the spirit. "I come here with an important message."

"Wait a minute," said Link with a suspicious eye. "I've heard that one before! So if you think you can fool us, try again!"

"Oh, no, sir, I can assure you I am not here to fool you," replied the grey mist. "I come here purely so I can tell you of a great danger that has befallen one of your friends."

"Huh," said Bowser. "What's up?"

"I don't think you recognize this person, do you?" asked the spirit, snapping his fingers so that an image appeared of a man in operative's clothing. The man seemed to be held up by a suspended object, but then Link, Mario, and Bowser's eyes all widened considerably.

"My god..." said Bowser. "Snake?"

"Ah, so you do know him," replied the spirit.

"Where is he?" cried Link with hate searing holes into the spirit's form. "What did you do to him?"

"Calm down, sir," replied Hades. "I am in no way in charge of your friend's kidnapping. If you want to know more, consult this tablet here."

Another snap of the finger, and then suddenly a stone slab fell out onto the floor. The eight people with flesh and bone quickly crowded around the stone to find a strange alphabet written onto it.

"What's dis?" asked Raph with a confused look. "It looks like chicken scratch!"

"Hm," said Raine simply. "This is a text in the ancient language."

"The ancient language?" asked Kasumi. "What's that?"

"It's a language I know very well," replied the professor. "This must be read, I know it!"

"Well, what are-a you waiting-a for?" asked Mario. "Read-a it!"

Raine trailed the text along with her fingers, looking at the text intently. After a few minutes passed of Raphael impatiently beating his foot against the ground, Raine reached the end of the tablet, and coughed to get their attentions.

"Apparently, this reads like a prophecy," said Raine in a lecturous tone. "It's pretty long, but what it whittles down to is, 'in times of crisis, twenty will rise and defeat the greatest evils the universe has seen."

"So, that means that there are more of us that need to fight Crazy Hand?" asked Link. "He could barely survive when we beat him, how is he supposed to hold up his own against twenty other guys?"

"You will learn in time," replied the gray spirit. "Now do you believe me?"

"I guess," shrugged Bowser. "So, we've gotta go there and save Snake?"

"Snake, and his friend," replied the spirit with a wink.

"Whoa, he made a friend?" asked Link. "That's wierd."

"Why?" asked Genis, not turning away from his sister as the group dispersed and the professor stood up.

"Snake was-a very-a antisocial," replied Mario. "It is-a very wierd-a thing to see, him making-a friends..."

"Ah," replied Kasumi. "So, how are we supposed to get there?"

"There is a long winding passage to the room he is in," replied the grey spirit. "I shall send you there."

"Wait a minute," said Sheena as she glared at the grey spirit. "If you can come straight to us, why can't you just take us right there?"

"There is a trial involved in the process," replied the grey spirit. "Four of the heroes are in chains; to prove themselves, the rest must rescue them from certain harm..."

"Okay, I can buy that," said Raph. "But ya better not pull anything else on us!"

"Will do," said the spirit. "Now, if you would allow me."

With another snap of the fingers, a black circle of energy appeared in front of the group, and they all looked at each other before they shrugged.

"Okay," said Raph. "Whadd're we waitin' for?"

"We still do not know who you are," said Kasumi before anyboy else could move a finger.

"Well, you didn't ask," replied the spirit. "But since you asked, I am Hades, king of the underworld."

"King of the Underworld?" cried Raine loudly, her face stricken with horror.

"Ha ha!" jeered Genis teasingly. "That's what you ge-eeet for beee-ing in ruuuin mooode!"

"Why, you!" cried Raine, suddenly quite enraged. "A spanking is in order as soon as this quest is over!"

The young half-elf then cowered in fear, hiding behind Raph's leg as the turtle grew more and more impatient.

"Can we just leave now?" asked the irritated turtle. "I need to beat some people up!"

"Well, I guess this is goodbye for now," said Sheena as she faced the king of the underworld. "Thanks for the help!"

"Anytime, friends!" said Hades. "Farewell!"

The group gave each other perturbed looks for a second before Raphael shrugged and entered the circle of energy. Soon, everybody followed him in, and then their former campsite was vacant with their lingering presence.

* * *

When they stepped out of the black energy, they found themselves in a seemingly plain cave, the walls reeking of mud and the air around them suddenly just a little colder.

"Okay, here we are," said Link as he looked at his surroundings.

"Hm, this is strange..." said Raine as she looked around as well. "Why does it smell of mud?"

"Don't ask me," replied Bowser with a shrug. "This place looks pretty anticlimactic to save people in."

"I wouldn't know about that," replied Sheena. "I noticed quite a bit of seemingly advanced technology there..."

"Not even of the type found in the world?" asked Genis curiously.

"Not even," replied Raine in kind.

"Hm, I see..." said Link. "We should probably try to find this place..."

"Well, Hades teleported us close by, I hope," said Kasumi as she began to walk in a particular direction. "Let us start moving and see where that takes us..."

"Sure-a thing," said Mario with a shrug.

The group of eight then found themselves following the kunoichi through the winding caverns, looking at the walls as they felt a very strange presence overcome them.

* * *

The crisp night air of New York was seemingly tranquil, not foreboding the tragedy that was about to fall in the dead of night.

Michelangelo, Splinter, and Donatello both shrugged against each other on the small stake that they were tied to, the two terrapins and mutated rat staring at the armor-clad form of Oroku Saki as he stood just a few feet away from them. The moon shone over the scene, highlighting the terror that ran through the eyes of the two turtles and the last of Splinter's resolve.

"So, it is 12:50, and neither of your brothers have arrived," said the leader of the Foot Clan menacingly. "In just a few more hours, the sun will rise."

"P-p-p-please don't!" stammered the orange-clad turtle, the terror in his voice showing clearly. "Just... d-d-don't!"

"But of course I will," replied the Shredder menacingly. "I've been waiting for a long time for this opportunity; do you think I would pass it up now?"

"But what if Raph doesn't show up?" asked Don, somehow managing to keep his cool under the tension he was being subjected to.

"Then I shall find him and destroy him as well," replied Oroku Saki coldly, the samurai armor gleaming in the moonlight.

"B-but..." said Michelangelo, slowly losing the will to try to bargain for their lives for the past several days.

"You will all be destroyed, and I shall rejoice afterwards," said the Shredder coldly.

"How could you be so cruel, Oroku Saki?" asked the mutated rat, the only one who had an inch of his resolve that even then was fading away quickly. "You tortured my sons, killed so many innocents, and ruined our friends' lives. What more do you want?"

"The world," replied the ninja.

At this moment, however, all attention was diverted to a strange energy that opened from the middle of nowhere. The three tied to the stake turned their eyes at it warily, and the Shredder stared at it curiously.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of waiting, a middle-aged grey-haired man stepped out of the portal in a full robe with emblems running down the sides of it. As he walked, he betrayed an air of royalty, but this only made Mikey shrink back against the stake with even more terror in his eyes. The man looked around him, surveying the scene in front of him coldly, observing every little detail; the moon, the starless night, the men clad in black suits that skirted the vicinity of the area, the three strange-looking people tied to the stake, and finally a strange man in even stranger armor standing in front of him. Nobody dared move, not even the Shredder with all of his pride in finally being able to rid himself of these pestilences that called themselves turtles. They waited for the mysterious man to make the first move.

"Well," said the strange man in a silky baritone that pierced the air. "This is certainly quite a world. A whole host of strange men, three gigantic animals, and a man in strange armor."

"What are you doing here?" asked the Shredder, coldly holding up a hand with a claw attached to it.

"Not anything that is of your concern," replied the stranger. "Now, tell me, what is this silliness that is going on here?"

"H-he's trying to kill us!" cried Mikey, seeing hope in this stranger as he struggled against his bonds. "Stop him!"

"Silence!" cried the Shredder.

With this, the ninja master tossed a shuriken straight at the stake, the item barely missing Mikey's face and embedding itself into the wood of the stake. The youngest turtle cowered back towards the stake, literally shaking with fear as his cheek leaned against Don's shoulder.

"Those annoying nuisances are one to talk," stated Oroku Saki coldly. "They are trying to get in the way of my taking over the world."

"Ah, so you are trying to invade this place, eh?" asked the stranger. "I sympathise with your plight, then. I myself am looking for some nuisances that are preventing me from taking over the world at this point in time."

"Ah, are you?" asked the Shredder. "Maybe I can help you find them. For a favor, of course..."

"And what might this favor be?" asked the stranger.

"I want to be rid of these nuisances," said the ninja master. "However, two of them still lurk somewhere in this city. I have attempted to lure them here so that I may kill them. Help me do it, and I shall aid you on whatever you seek."

"I seek three crystals," replied the stranger graciously. "They too are being held by two strangers. So I help you get rid of your nuisances, and you help me attain these crystals."

"Do I kill the ones holding these crystals?" asked the Shredder.

"No," replied the grey-haired stranger proudly. "I want them to see what those three crystals can do before they die."

"I see then," said the Shredder. "You have my word."

"I am Admiral Galcian of the Valuan Armada," said the stranger in turn.

"And I am Oroku Saki, leader of the Foot Clan," said the ninja master in tune.

Splinter felt all of his resolve drain from his being, and as Mikey and Don both inched towards the stake in their bonds, the partnership was sealed with a firm handshake.


	23. Chapter 22: Fight for New York

Okay, so now that finals are over, I have five weeks to do stuff. That's right; five weeks to get things done here. So while I'm doing that, let's also do some more of this!

* * *

Chapter 22: Fight for New York

Leo finally came to rest in a small area between two walls in an abandoned factory, Fina and Aika finally both letting go of the turtle as he landed on the ground.

The sun still had not come out, the moon reigning supreme over New York as the ladies both brushed some dust that had gathered on their clothes. Leo looked ahead to find a factory yard close by with several men wearing clothing that seemed to cover every inch of their bodies from the distance they were at. Leonardo gauged that it must have been two o'clock in the morning, so he took it upon himself to look to the girls.

"So, here we are," said Leo. "Aika, Fina, are you two all right?"

"Yeah, we're fine," said Aika as she stretched her limbs.

"Do you think we can defeat this 'Shredder'?" asked Fina with a hint of concern on her face. "I'm worried..."

"Don't you worry about a thing, Fina," replied Leo, eyes narrowing as he looked on. "I'm sure that this is the time I'll finally be able to beat him."

"Well, whatever happens, we're with you to the end!" said Aika, raising her fist in the air.

"Yes!" said Fina, giving a determined nod as she looked to the abandoned yard.

"All right then," said Leo with a nod. "Girls, let's do this!"

The mutated turtle moved towards the yard first, Aika and Fina both following behind with resolute looks on their faces. The three of them then walked out into the factory yard.

It was just as Aika had imagined it somewhere in the recesses of her mind. All around the yard were people wearing strange suits, all of them seemingly made for combat in dark places. To one side was a strange man wearing even stranger armor that glinted off of the light of the only moon, and to another was a stake on which two mutated turtles and a mutated rat were tied to.

_Leo's family_, thought Fina, a chill running down her spine as she clenched one of her hands into a fist.

"Leo!" cried one of the people tied to the stake. "You're okay!"

Before anything more could be said, however, the three of them stopped in the center of the yard, the strange men closing every avenue of escape for the three of them. The man in the strange armor walked up to Leonardo, hands behind his back as he stared at the three of them intently.

"Hm," he said, Aika and Fina both feeling chills run down their spines as he uttered his first words. "Where is Raphael? The conditions were that the both of you were to come."

"I don't know where he is," replied Leo, the girls noticing a strange kind of hatred that they had never noticed in his voice before. "And if I knew, he wouldn't be one to miss something like this."

"Ah," replied the man who was apparently the Shredder. "Oh well. I can make do with one of the brothers; I can hunt down the other eventually. In the meantime, I see you brought two girls here with you."

At this, the man's attention was turned to the two girls, and when the man turned his cold glare at them the two Arcadians could not help but feel a jolt in their beings.

"State your business," said the man briefly.

"We're... his friends," said Aika, regaining her composure as she became used to this stare. "And we're not leaving him alone! We've been through so much, so if you think we're backing down you've got a lot coming for you!"

"My, my, such a brazen way to speak for being a lady," replied the Shredder cooly. "And how fares the moon crystals, then?"

This elicited a gasp of shock from Fina, Aika suddenly becoming all the more determined as she put Fina between herself and Leo.

"How did you know about those crystals?" asked the Silvite, her shock quickly fading as the question of why faded into her head.

"I am guessing you are asking about me, then?" asked a deep baritone, Aika and Fina both turning abruptly towards the source of the sound as Leo looked behind him.

A man walked forward then, gray hair also shining in the moonlight and his cloak barely touching the floor as he moved. Aika and Fina both recognized the man instantly, the two of them instantly glaring at him.

"Galcian!" cried Aika, surprise eminent in her voice. "What're you doing here?"

"Why else?" asked the Valuan admiral, Leonardo throwing a confused glance at the two girls. "I come for your crystals."

"You won't have them!" shouted Fina. "If you try to take them, we'll respond with force!"

"Hm, most interesting," said Galcian as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "You've certainly grown quite a bit of bravado since I've seen you last. My question is, will you survive with it?"

"Of course!" said Aika, Leonardo beginning to realize what was happening. "We're not going to lose to you two!"

"In a three against two match where neither of you have tested your strength?" asked the Shredder as he walked to Galcian, the two evil men facing the turtle and his two friends as Galcian tossed his cloak away to reveal armor suited for battle.

Leo drew his two katanas, Aika following suit as she drew her boomerang from within a pouch in her clothes and Cupil unwinding so that it hovered next to Fina's head.

"We Blue Rogues never give up!" said Aika quite bravely. "Didn't Galcian tell you that? We don't know until we try!"

"Yeah!" cried Leo. "You guys are going to pay for whatever you did to my family!"

"Very well then," said the Shredder as Galcian withdrew a sword and the two of them settled into a fighting posture, the blades at the end of the Shredder's hands gleaming like the Grim Reaper's scythe in the night. "Do not say we did not warn you when you die."

"We will have no regrets," said Fina, her confidence in herself higher than it had ever been. "Even if we die, we'll have no regrets!"

A tense silence filled the air, neither side daring to move in the night. Glares of determination were sent from both sides, and the ninjas stood guard, watching this calm before the storm with a strange kind of placidity in their beings that something was going to be done about those turtles.

* * *

Meanwhile, in another part of the abandoned factory, Vyse, Serene, Lina, Ryu, and Largo were busy navigating buildings, the five of the trying to find where they were supposed to be. They were in one of the many buildings, searching hard for signs of coming conflicts and failing. However, as they had scoured the factory for any clues they had found quite a few things that could be used as weapons when used by certain people. After they had found these items, the group decided to take a break in another large area of the building they had taken to searching in, and so the group either rested against the old wall of the wide interior or stood up.

"So, where exactly is this supposed to be?" asked Serene, leaning against the grey wall that was decaying with age.

"Don't ask me," said Largo with a shrug. "I don't know either."

"Lina doesn't get it..." Lina said his as she laid her bow down on the ground next to where she was sitting by the wall.

"I hope we find them soon," said Vyse as he stretched his arms out. "Fina, Aika and I have a lot of catching up to do."

"Well, before that we do need to eliminate some other people," added Ryu as he stood calmly. "I can't believe I even got dragged into this..."

"Well, it's not like it's a bad thing," countered Serene with a shrug. "I mean, your tracking skills got us this far, so we've got that to be thankful for."

"It was probably fate," said Largo, walking up to Ryu and giving him a nice pat on the shoulder. "We're glad you're with us."

"And who knows?" asked Vyse with a shrug. "Maybe we'll run into this Kasumi you talk about."

"You're right," said Ryu. "Thank you all for--"

"Galcian!" cried a voice from far away, just faintly enough that everybody in the group could hear it. "What're you doing here?"

There was a brief silence afterwards, Vyse walking towards the direction the sound was in.

"What is it?" asked Ryu plainly.

"That was Aika!" exclaimed Vyse, pounding a fist into his hand.

"So we're in the right place!" exclaimed an excited Lina in turn as she jumped up and grabbed her bow.

"But something is strange..." said Vyse. "She said something about Galcian..."

"Is he some bad guy from where you come from?" asked Serene as she stood back up.

"Yeah," said Vyse. "But this definitely can't be my world, so how's he here?"

"That's of no concern to us," said Ryu as his emerald eyes glanced in the direction that the cry came from. "What we need to focus on is getting to where they are, and fast."

"Of course," said Largo. "Come on guys! Let's go!"

And the five of them ran out of the building, all of them following Ryu as he quickly dashed out of the building and into the cold New York skyline.

* * *

After a relatively long silence, Galcian was the first to move.

The sword swipe from the Valuan admiral was swiftly blocked by one of Leonardo's katanas, and this was followed shortly afterwards by a kick to Galcian's chest. This sent the admiral flying a short distance away.

The Shredder took this opening to run towards Leo, whose back was turned to him. Seeing this, however, Aika jumped in and swiped at the Shredder with her boomerang. The leader of the Foot Clan dodged this attack very rapidly, and before Fina had any time to react she felt a sharp feeling in her gut, and she was sent flying back into Fina, who narrowly dodged the lady.

Leo's concentration was soley on Galcian as the general quickly stood up and rushed straight at the turtle. A series of well-placed sword swipes followed, all of which Leonardo blocked with a fluidity not normally present in his species. As the two of them exchanged blows, Fina helped Aika back up only to find the Shredder right in front of them, his arm in the middle of a swipe. Almost without Fina commanding it to, Cupil transformed into a solid shield and blocked the blows coming at the two ladies quite quickly. This gave the two girls time to collect their bearings before Aika broke through Cupil's constant guarding with a swipe from the boomerang. This, Oroku Saki expertly dodged, along with the kick to the face that Aika sent in his direction.

Fina stood in the back, closing her eyes as a small magic circle formed on the ground beneath her. Her hair began to fly up from a strange force beneath her, and suddenly when one of Galcian's sword strikes nicked Leo in the shoulder, the magic circle beneath her took on a greenish hue, and then the cut that resulted was healed up relatively quickly.

Leonardo took note of the pain being healed, and slashed at Galcian as if nothing happened. However, when Leo threw another kick, he was surprised to find that Galcian responded in kind, sending the turtle flying back first. Doing a flip to recover from this blow, Leonardo found himself right within the range where he and Aika were bumped into each other's backs.

Seeing an opportunity to switch opponents, Leonardo jumped over Aika, the woman rolling under the turtle as sword met boomerang and claws met katanas.

Aika then went on the offensive against Galcian, sending her boomerang twirling this way and that around her as she threw in a kick here and there. All of these blows were expertly guarded by Galcian, however, but the girl was able to weave in several expert dodges into the mix as well, so Galcian knew that he could not underestimate this woman.

Leonardo, meanwhile, found himself distributing an even number of blows and blocks against the Shredder; however, finding that his opponent was faster than he thought he found himself having a hard time blocking blows.

Thankfully, Fina ran forward, and Cupil transformed into a blue blade which dodged some of the claw swipes that the Shredder was dealing to the two of them. The Silvite and the turtle stood side by side as the two of them blocked each claw strike quickly.

The two sides went at each other for quite a stalemate, the two of them trading blows for quite some time and not really gaining any headway in regards to one side beating the other.

However, an error in one of Cupil's movements gave the Shredder the time he needed to set up a move that could potentially mess up the other team. As Leonardo went in for a kick, the Shredder grabbed the foot and quickly began twirling around. Fina only had enough time to fall to the ground before Cupil was violently whacked by the turtle, sending the creature flying so that it hit one of the ninjas that was guarding the exits. The Shredder let go of the turtle, and then Galcian jumped out of the way right before Leo collided with Aika, the two of them falling together in a heap with Aika on top.

Fina had barely risen from her stance to run away as quickly as possible before she found her arm being held by Galcian, the admiral glaring at her with anger ridden in his eyes.

"I must say that you and your friends put up a good fight," said the Valuan Admiral. "But now your game is up! Give me the moon crystals and you shall live!"

"Never!" cried Fina, trying to break free of Galcian's hold and finding it impossible to do so. "I'll never give in!"

"Ah, if that's the way it is, then I hope you like joining your friends!" said Galcian.

As Aika was standing up the Valuan Admiral tossed Fina into her, the two of them falling back on the turtle. Fina's eyes shut very quickly, but before she was able to chant a spell she felt the rush of wind over her, and then a great pain came up in her abdomen as she let out a cry.

Fina fell from the top of the pile, the bloody claws of the Shredder gleaming in the moonlight as he proceeded to dash to and fro across the three friends, claws scratching at their skin and puncturing it pretty deeply. He dashed across them quite a few times, and then stopping as Fina groaned lightly, trying to get the concentration to heal her and everybody else's wounds. But this concentration did not come, as then they were all laying down in a pretty large heap, the blood beginning to collect beneath them.

"Leo, no!" cried Don from the stake that was quite a ways away.

"Now, prepare to die!" cried Galcian as he raised his blade in the air, pointing at the three people who were struggling to rise.

Galcian quickly rushed forward, but before the blad could hit anybody the blade was suddenly blocked by a strange force. Galcian barely had time to turn around before a man dressed in all black suddenly sent a katana down on the admiral. He barely dodged it before a strange pain rose up in his other arm. He was barely able to see the ninja star that was embedded in his arm before suddenly, he was thrown to the side by the stranger in black.

Seeing this, Oroku Saki ran over to help, but he suddenly found himself coming face to face with the back of the head of a scythe. This sent the Shredder falling down, and before he could register anything else, he found himself being picked up by a large, muscular man who then proceeded to slam him onto the ground on the other side of him before throwing him right into where Galcian was.

When the two men collided, a fourth person came out, and with a pair of swords he slashed at their armor, finding the blow to be just a little futile. However, he then kicked the two of them away, and they fell onto the ground.

As they were slowly standing up, a girl was suddenly visible high in the air, a bunch of arrows strung in her bow as she let the string go. As the two men stood up, they suddenly found themselves assaulted by arrows, and they were suddenly down on the ground again as one of the arrows zipped past them, curved against the laws of gravity, and embedded itself right into the stake at the other side of the battlefield, thus freeing the two turtles and the rat from their bindings.

When Galcian and the Shredder finally found themselves able to stand again, they looked at the group of five, finding it to be a very strange assortment of people, a young man with a blue shirt and a see-through eyepatch standing in front and holding out one blue blade. Behind him was a girl dressed completely in orange, another dressed in blue, the man wearing the black jumpsuit, and the large muscular man who apparently only wore pants and a bunch of belts around his torso.

It was with this distraction that Fina was finally able to cast a healing spell on herself and her friends, and after their wounds closed up they slowly looked to the group as well.

"You better not touch them again!" said the young man, his voice betraying a hint of anger. "Because we'll pull another one of those on you two if you do!"

"Vyse!" cried Aika as she stood up quickly and tackled the air pirate to the ground energetically. "You're okay!"

"Aika, not now!" said Vyse as he quickly brushed her off of him.

The girl was quickly off of him anyway, though, taking her boomerang as Leo and Fina both ran over to the group of friends that Vyse had brought along.

"Ah, so you brought back-up, then," said the Shredder accusatorily.

"Hey, don't look at me," said Leo.

"Yeah!" said the little girl in orange. "We came here by ourselves!"

"Indeed," said the man dressed in black as Michelangelo and Donatello both arrived at the scene, the bulky man with the axe watching them as they came along.

"Hey, you two," said the large muscular man as he pulled the staff and the nunchuks from behind his back. "Are these yours?"

The two turtles looked at the large man incredulously as he held their weapons.

"Yes, but how did you get them?" asked the purple-masked turtle.

"We found them," said the blue-clad girl as the large man threw the weapons to the turtles. Mikey and Don caught their respective weapons, their gazes turning to the Shredder as soon as they found a feel for their weapons.

"There," said the bulky man. "You'll need them now."

"Thanks, uh..." said the purple masked turtle.

"Largo," said the large man.

"We'll get introductions through later," said the man in black quickly.

"So, three against two?" asked Leo. "Now it looks like it's ten against two."

"Cheaters..." snarled Galcian angrily. "All of you..."

"We are the caretakers of our destinies," said the man dressed completely in black. "We simply followed the path set to us. And it is apparent you both must be defeated."

The orange-haired girl sent a leery glance at the man in black.

"Geez, Ryu," said the girl somewhat stragely. "Lina doesn't like that stuff..."

"Eh, what can ya do?" asked the lady who wore the blue dress. "But anyways, you're going down!

"I'm with Serene!" added Largo. "You two are both going down right here, right now!"

After the large man said this, there was a tense silence as the Shredder and Galcian both stood up to face the group in front of them.

"Quite a bit of pride there," said Galcian. "Still, I look forward to seeing what you can do..."

"As do I," said the Shredder. "I won't go down until you turtles are dead!"

With this, Oroku Saki lunged at Leonardo, claws slashing in the air as Leo expertly dodged the slashes and kicked the Shredder to the side. Taking the hint, the man who was apparently Ryu ran forward, kicked the Shredder into the air, and then jumped up himself. He grabbed a hold of the leader of the Foot Clan, and then he plummeted towards the earth, the Shredder coming down head first as Ryu jumped away from him.

As the Shredder hovered in the air, Fina had casted a spell that at that time trapped the leader of the Foot Clan in the air. Galcian moved to slash at her, but this was easily avoided by a very strong stab to the head from Don's bo staff, and the Valuan Admiral was sent flying to the side as Fina's attack sent the Shredder flying backwards.

When Galcian was just about to hit the ground, he found himself abruptly being set back on his feet by the girl with the rather large scythe. As he turned around disoriented, he fent a strong blow to his head from what appeared to be the turtle with the orange mask and he was sent falling to the ground only to find himself back on his feet again in an even more disoriented state than before.

The Shredder stood up quickly and lunged towards Leo. However, he had his katanas ready as he blocked every slash that came his way. However, he did not successfully dodge the kick that sent him flying back. However, the Shredder had not noticed that Lina had ganged up on him, so when she swiftly kicked his leg out from under him he was very surprised.

He was equally surprised when he felt a large hand wrap around his heel. From here, he began to feel the world spin around him, and before he knew it, he was high in the air encased in another of Fina's Crystals. He then found himself face-to-face with Serene, who then let loose a bunch of scythe slashes at the leader of the Foot Clan before twirling around to deliver a particularly ferocious swing. This swing broke the crystal, and the Shredder was sent flying back to the earth. However, he regained his footing and ran towards one of the other turtles, eyes now bloodshot with the desire for revenge.

Galcian, meanwhile, had taken quite a beating himself. He found himself getting pummelled by the two other turtles as the woman with the scythe jumped high into the air to deal with the Shredder. However, Galcian had only just regained his senses when he found himself encased in a strange purple ice that was apparently generated from Aika. As he struggled in his prison of ice, he suddenly saw Vyse run up to him, and with the fury of a thousand air pirates the ice was broken into thousands of pieces, Galcian sent flying back as he hit the ground hard.

It was then that the Valuan admiral felt something pick him up by the back of his shirt, and he barely saw the muscular man as he flew right into a spot where Aika's boomerang caught his clothes and he found himself spinning around, the world going by in a blur. At this time, Oroku Saki was running towards Don, but he was smacked in the face by one of Vyse's cutlasses. This did not stop the clan leader, but it did give Aika the opening she needed to send Galcian rocketing towards the Shredder with a flick of her wrist.

The two evil men came down in a heap, but then the girl known as Lina had jumped into the air again and unleashed a hail of arrows on the two people. As they scrambled to get up, they found the arrows pierce their flesh, but as they did they found an electric shock fly through them such that they were strewn high into the air.

Wasting no time, Largo ran in and jumped up, the broad side of his axe slamming into the two evil men at the same time. This sent them flying to Leo, who jump-kicked the two of them in different directions, Galcian landing on the ground before Ryu appeared in front of him and the Shredder landing quite a distance away in front of Don, Mikey, and Serene.

Almost instantly, Ryu was on Galcian, the shinobi slashing at Galcian repeatedly and rapidly, such that after a few seconds of this Galcian's armor was finally penetrated and some blood zinged through the air. The shinobi backed off quickly, but before Galcian could gather his bearings again he felt a strong pain surge through his midsection, and when he was able to focus his vision he found that one of Vyse's cutlasses was embedded deep within his abdomen. As his vision began to swim around him, the Air Pirate shoved Galcian off of his sword and onto the ground as his life ebbed away from him.

The Shredder was no better off, as suddenly he felt Mike's nunchuks bear on his head at the exact same instant. The ring in his head did not go away, so he was unable to dodge the bo staff blow from Donatello. As he was sent reeling back from the force of the blow, he suddenly felt himself get shoved back further by a blow from the butt of Serene's scythe. As he fell to the ground, he felt himself suddenly get picked up and tossed high into the air, and he barely had time to register what had happened before he felt himself encased in the same crystal that Fina had trapped him in earlier. As he was held there in the crystal, he saw the figure of Aika jumping high into the air, one slash from her boomerang breaking the crystal and sending him rocketing into the ground, a crater forming where he landed from the sheer force of the slash.

As Aika gracefully landed on the ground, everybody that had been in the fight so far walked over to the edge, watching Oroku Saki slowly stand up, being so disoriented from the attacks against him that he could barely walk straight. Without hesitation, Leonardo jumped into the small crater and tacked the Shredder to the ground, his katana pressed against his throat as the turtle breathed hard.

"Now, I am one for honor, and you know that," said Leo as he exhaled deeply from the exhilaration of the past fight. "But this is drawing the line, stealing my family behind my back and using that as a way to kill us all. For that, you must die!"

Before the Shredder could say another word, Leo pressed the katana down on the Shredder's neck as hard as he could, and the severed head of Oroku Saki rolled away from his body, Leo breathing harder and harder as he saw the head roll to a stop within the crater itself.


	24. Chapter 23: The First Coming

Wow, I have been absolutely stupid with updating this! What's wrong with me?

Anyways, fear not, for you have this chapter as a consolation prize.

* * *

Chapter 23: The First Coming

"What is going on there?"

"I-I-I don't know, Ramirez! Calm down while I try to find out!"

"Oh, no you don't! You won't stop until I am satisfied. Now work faster!"

"Y-yes, Sir!"

Ramirez was quite angry with De Loco, who was trying to examine the warp gate to see what was happening on the other side. The mad scientist was working as quickly as he could to make sure he could read the warp gate's readings with any semblance of accuracy as to what was happening to Galcian. The sounds of battle coming from the other side of the gate were still going strong, and De Loco was working madly as Snake and Enrique watched this scene, the two of them not daring to react to what they saw as either a good or a bad sign.

The mad scientest was hard at work realigning certain cables on the module that was being used to power the gate. As he worked, various things happened, including that the warp gate stopped working altogether at one point. However, as he worked quickly, he finally connected a cable somewhere where the warp gate became clear.

Ramirez stepped forward, peering out into a fight scene that he realized Galcian was taking part in along with another man with strange armor.

"Whatever you did, keep it like that," said Ramirez boldly, De Loco looking at the admiral rather quickly before scrambling to keep his hand in place so that a wire that he was holding in place would stay still.

The Silvite then watched the fight go on, and over time he realized that Galcian's side was outnumbered two fighters to ten. He watched the fight, slowly watching Galcian getting hit around by several people.

However, it was when his eyes were set on a certain familiar girl did he realize what was going on.

_Fina...? _he thought, seeing the white dress spin around as he beheld the man with the strange armor being frozen in a crystal.

However, Ramirez barely had time to ponder this, for suddenly he saw the fight turn in the favor of his enemies, Enrique and Snake watching what they could from where they were and seeing the same things he was.

It was when the blade was thrust into Galcian's body that De Loco's warp gate suddenly fizzled out from De Loco keeping the wire in place. With a spark, the entire gate stopped working entirely, leaving a dumbfounded Ramirez staring at nothing as the mad scientist found himself looking at the other admiral and hoping for some sign of mercy from the stoic man.

"N-no!" cried an enraged Ramirez quite suddenly, turning to De Loco. "Turn this gate back on!"

"B-but Sir Ramirez, I-I think th-this gate b-b-broke when I--!"

"I don't want your excuses!" cried the Silvite, rage and spite flying in his voice. "I will avenge sir Galcian, by putting an end to those people that were there that ended his life!"

"Not if we can help it!" said Snake with a smirk.

"And what do you plan to do?" asked Ramirez, who was suddenly very hyper and uncontrollable.

However, to this question, Snake had no reply. He looked to Enrique before shaking his head.

"Don't make me any angrier than I already am!" cried Enrique. "If I had all the Crystals, I would summon the Rains of Destruction on this world, and the other if I can help it! And you two will be witness to that no matter what you do!"

However, the door that opened out into a nearby hallway was suddenly blown open by an explosion that sent fragments of the door flying very quickly. Before anything else could be said, a blue blur flew right out from the explosion, went straight past Ramirez, and then jumped up, a quick motion severing the chords holding Snake and Enrique to the floating crystal. This blue figure then finally stopped to reveal a woman wearing a strange blue dress who was holding a tanto knife in her had. She looked up at Ramirez with determination in her eye, standing there as Ramirez drew his rapier.

"So you want a fight, eh?" asked the Silvite as he approached the silent woman and entered a fighting stance. "Be my guest."

Before he could do anything, however, he heard what sounded like something sliding against the ground, and he looked behind him to jump out of the way just as an oversized turtle shell with spikes on it raced towards him, bumping against the altar on which the moon crystals were supposed to stand. He would have moved, but then a young grey-haired youth who was apparently riding behind the turtle shell poked his head out, raised a kendama in the air before the ground below him began to shake. He sidestepped out of the range of the stones that came flying up afterwards, but this caused him to walk straight into a roundhouse kick that was being performed by a rather large mutated turtle.

Before Ramirez hit the ground, he found himself suddenly getting socked in the jaw by a rather short man who apparently liked to wear a lot of red attire. As he was sent reeling back from this blow, he saw another female ninja approach, but he regained his balance quickly enough to dodge what seemed to be a bunch of razor-sharp cards that were swiping at him constantly. However, he felt a sharp feeling in his gut as he was sent reeling back, the girl's foot retreating as a man in a green tunic came out from the doors and De Loco looked behind him to see what was happening.

The assortment that was in front of the four of them surprised them greatly, especially Snake since his eyes were bulging when he saw the sight in front of him.

"Mario?" he asked. "Link? Bowser? What the hell are you three doing here?"

"What anybody trying to save the universe would," said Link as he held out a hand for Snake and Enrique. "Are you two okay?"

"We're fine, thank you," said Enrique as he gingerly brushed some dust off of his royal garnments. "But we're unarmed here, and--?"

"Problem solved," said a grey-haired woman who approached them holding a rapier and a lot of explosives in front of the group. With a nod, Snake took the explosives and a somewhat hesitant Enrique took the rapier.

"W... What is going on here?" asked Ramirez suddenly, glaring at the display of people around him.

"Can't ya guess that by what we just did?" asked the mutated turtle, impatience clearly showing in the way he held his sais. "We're here ta kick ass and take names."

"Raph!" cried out the female ninja who had attacked Ramirez with the cards.

"Yeah, really," said the young man who was riding on Bowser's shell, the koopa king holding his head from the collision with the altar. "Sheena's right; we're not here to take names!"

"Oh, enough of this!" said the woman in the blue dress, her long red hair flowing down her shoulders as she stood up. "We are here to exterminate you. That is all."

"Oh, exterminate _me_, huh?" asked Ramirez, a dark hint playing in his voice. "I think you will be the ones to be slaughtered today!"

"We'll see about that," said Enrique.

"W-what is this?" asked a very confused De Loco from behind the group.

Snake let out a hefty sigh at this.

"Somebody shut that bastard up!" he complained.

"On it." Before anybody could ask what was going on, the crash of glass hitting a hard surface was heard from behind the group. When they turned around to look, they found Bowser standing there, De Loco lying down on his back next to him with the glass surrounding his head having been destroyed. He now lay helpless on the ground, gasping for air heavily as Bowser looked down at him angrily.

"All right, what did you hit him against?" asked the now somewhat peeved female ninja.

"The altar, of course," said Bowser. "Also, I might turn around if I were you."

She did as she was told to find Ramirez about to go in for an attack. She was only able to roll to the side to dodge said attack before the battle had begun.

The Silvite would have gone in for a slash if Enrique had not blocked the attack deftly with his rapier. With this he was only able to send the slash over to the side, where it rolled off of the Valuan prince's blade and onto the floor. However, Ramirez regained his balance extraordinarily quickly just in time to block an attack from a tanto knife that was gleaming in the room.

Ramirez then exchanged blows with this strange woman for quite some time, neglecting the fact that there were other people in the room and thus being completely caught off guard when the mutated turtle somehow managed to catch the Silvite's blade in between his two sais, and the two of them tussled between strength for a brief interval. As they were fighting for control of Ramirez' blade, the agile turte noticed Snake pull a grenade from his pack of explosives. After the agent pulled the pin, he then proceeded to run up to the Silvite quickly enough that he was able to pull the Silvite's shirt back to drop the grenade in there.

"Get back!" cried the turtle as he suddenly released Ramirez' sword, the group doing as they were told. As soon as they had all retreated, the admiral found enough time to pull the grenade out of his shirt and toss it high into the air, the little ball exploding just a half a second after Ramirez had tossed it in the air.

The woman who had been the first woman involved in the fight was then on Ramirez, magical cards swiping this way and that at the admiral as he skillfully blocked each and every little card that was sent in his direction. After this little duel went on for several minutes, Ramirez then kicked the woman away so he could turn around and block an attack from the man named Link, their swords coming together quickly as Ramirez then retreated his blade and tried a slash that Link blocked with his shield. Ramirez then turned around to block a sword swipe from Enrique, the force of the block sending Enrique stepping back quite a bit as Ramirez then turned around again to block a sword slash from Link. The Silvite then jumped over the Hylian, blade slashing at the Hero of Time as he rolled to the side.

It was then that Ramirez found a strange glyph of light surrounding him. As soon as he saw the female staff user who had come in with Enrique and Snake's armaments, he found himself pelted by thousands of little needles of light, and then the pain sent him flying into the air and falling onto the ground. Before he was even able to get up, he saw the boy with the kendama raise his toy in the air, and then a hail of lighting rained down on the unfortunate Silvite as he took the brunt of the boy's spell.

After taking the shock of lightning, the Silvite stood up, only to block a very fast strike from the tanto knife that the woman in the blue dress was wearing. She retreated from his figure quickly, and he was about to lunge for somebody else when he found himself having to block the blow again as the kunoichi ran around the altar amazingly fast. Finally, after Ramirez had to block three more tanto strikes, he felt himself get kicked in the gut by the woman, and then he found himself flying back into the claws of somebody who then proceeded to slam him against the wall. As the Silvite saw that it was the turtle with the spikes on his shell, he found himself then getting spinned around so that the world spun around at an amazingly fast rate. It was only after three or four spins that the Silvite finally felt his legs be released, only to end up with a gloved fist in his face as he felt another hand grab on to his shirt.

He was spun around wildly again before being thrown to the floor, the force of the throw causing him to rebound into the air upon collision. As he was in the air, he saw one of the women jump up to his level, and then all sorts of pain reigned supreme in his being as little cuts were being inflicted by the magical cards she used. With a particularly strong swipe, Ramirez was finally seen falling to the floor, the woman with the tanto knife just below him.

As soon as Ramirez flew into her grasp, she grabbed him and thrust the tanto knife within his stomach quickly, releasing him with the Silvite staggering back, clutching the bleeding wound on his stomach as the rest of the group gathered behind the woman. For a while, it seemed that Ramirez would finally go down. As such, they looked intently at the wounded man to see what would happen.

However, the Silvite was still able to stand up straight after the wound became inflicted on him, and everybody gave the admiral an incredulous look as he glared at them.

"It will take more than a mere stomach wound to kill me..." he said with stronger determination than ever.

And with this, he charged at the remainder of the group, only to stagger forwards when he tried to slash at the mutated turtle. All the said turtle had to do was trip Ramirez quickly, and then the woman wearing the blue dress was on top of Ramirez, making fast work of the Silvite's neck such that the head rolled away.

As this sight was seen, the grey-haired woman covered the kid's eyes so that he would be spared the gory sight of Ramirez' lifeless head rolling away from his body with the pool of blood slowly forming around him.

There was complete silence in the altar for several minutes as they tried to figure out what had just happened. Finally, Bowser saw it fit to shrug lightly as he looked around him.

"Well, that wasn't too difficult, I guess," said Bowser.

"Wait, hold on," said Snake, holding his hand up in front of the koopa king's face. "Who the hell are these people?"

"Oh, I guess we didn't have much time to introduce people," said Link with a nod. "Sorry about that."

"Don't worry about it, honestly," said the crown prince of Valua. "Now, who are you?"

"The name's Raphael," said the mutated turtle with the sais, raising his three-fingered hand in the air. "I'd like ya ta call me Raph, though."

"I'm Genis," volunteered the youth, still with the older woman covering her eyes. "And this annoying lady holding her hand in front of my eyes is my sister, Raine."

"What did you say?" asked the ruin maniac angrily, pointing her finger at him after removing her hand.

"G-gah!" cried Genis as he ran so he could hide behind the altar. "I take it back! I take it back!"

"Good lord," said the woman in the blue dress as she shook her head.

"Are they always like that?" asked Snake as he watched Raine chase Genis around the altar, Raine almost tripping over Ramirez' body at one point.

"No..." said the other female ninja. "Anyways, I'm Sheena of the Fujibayashi clan, and the only other one who needs to introduce herself is Kasumi."

"Okay, that's-a done," said Mario. "Next-a business. Where-a should we go?"

Enrique and Snake looked first at the warp gate, then down at De Loco, then at each other.

"We need to wake up the mad scientist," said Enrique with a slight groan as he walked over to De Loco.

"Or not," said Raine, suddenly distracted by the machine that was in front of her.

Before anybody in the group could move, the professor was already on the machine, fiddling around with it as Snake and Enrique both stared at each other before reaching for her.

"Raine, wait!" cried out the FOXHOUND agent nervously.

But before the two of them even laid their hands on the half-elf, the black mass that was the dimensional gate suddenly appeared again, and the two of them stared at it for the longest time before sighing in defeat.

"I guess she got it to work?" asked Bowser.

"Yep," said Snake somewhat distastefully.

"And what the hell is this thing supposed ta do anyway?" asked a rather peeved Raphael.

"It's supposed to be a dimensional gate," said Enrique as he looked to the mutated turtle.

"As in, we go-a through and-a meet-a more people?" asked Mario elatedly.

"I wouldn't be surprised," said Sheena. "Let's go."

"Got it," said Snake, being the first one to walk into the portal.

Everybody else followed one by one, and then before anybody else knew it the room was empty, and then the dimensional portal shorted out and died, leaving the place in complete silence with only the bodies of De Loco and Ramirez to bear any witness to what had happened in there.

* * *

"Okay, so if Galcian was after those crystals, and the Shredder was after your lives, then that means we've defeated a dual front, right?"

"Yep. At least, I think so."

"So the only ones we have to take care of are Crazy Hand and his friend, right?"

"Yes."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

"But where do we go from here?"

A general silence pervaded the grounds.

"You're right..."

The group of ten that had gathered after fighting Galcian and Oroku Saki were now standing around the factory grounds as the sun ever so slowly rose. The Foot ninjas had long since left the factory, and Splinter had been sent to April and Casey's appartment with the news that the turtles were all right but that they had to go on a long quest.

The group had just been woken up by the sun, and it was when they woke up that they realized just how chilly it was outside. Nevertheless, they had congregated there, and were now wondering what to do.

"So, do we wait for Hades to come on over and warp us?" asked Leo with a shrug.

"I would think so..." said Vyse. "I mean, I have this thing here, but Persephone just told me to use it when we're in big trouble, and I don't want to trouble her too much."

"Hm..." said Ryu, scratching his chin as he pondered the meaning of their predicament a little more.

They did not have time for much more, for then they saw a black mass appear right in front of them quite suddenly, the suddenness of its appearance causing Lina to jump back quite a long distance.

"Whoah!" cried Aika.

"What the hell?" cried Mikey as he jumped up.

However, then a young man in royal garb came out of the portal, Aika, Fina, and Leo instantly recognizing who it was.

"Enrique?" asked the Silvite softly.

"Enrique!" cried Aika, jumping onto him unceremoniously so that the two of them were on the floor with Aika on top of him. "You're okay!"

"Aika! Fina! Leo!" exclaimed Enrique as said turtle helped him and Aika up from the ground. "Good to see you're all right."

"Wait, so if you're here, then that means..." said Leo just before Don and Mikey could ask Leo what was going on.

"Yep," said the FOXHOUND agent from behind Fina. "I'm right here."

"Snake!" cried Aika excitedly as she saw the familiar man behind him.

"Uh, I don't mean to break the reunion here, but who is this man?" asked Vyse as he eyed Snake strangely.

"Wait a minute! This show isn't startin' until I'm over there, got it?"

This voice from within the black portal startled several people, but Leo, Don, and Mikey stared at the black mass intently.

"Raphael?" asked Leo.

"Leo?" asked a red-clad turtle as he stepped out of the portal.

"Raph!" cried the three turtle brothers simultaneously as they tackled the hotheaded turtle to the ground.

"Wait, what is going on there?" cried a child's voice from within the portal.

"Hey, there's more!" said Lina as a woman and a young child stepped out of the portal, both of them having identical grey hair.

"Well, what do you know?" asked a man in a green tunic as he stepped out of the portal. "It's a whole bunch of friendly people around here!"

"Yep," said a rather gruff voice as an overly large turtle with a spiked shell came walking out with a plumber on one side of him. "Definitely a whole bunch of them here."

"Wait, hold up a minute!" cried Serene. "Where the hell did you come from?"

"The other side of the portal, of course," said a female that had stepped out of the portal with black hair and an elaborate outfit with a bow tied around her waist.

"Wait a minute..." said Largo, looking out and counting the heads. "Nineteen people?"

"Wait, there are nineteen people here?" asked Leo incredulously as Raphael finally forced his brothers to their feet.

"Yes," said Ryu as he looked around calmly.

"Twenty if you count me," said a woman in a blue dress as she walked out of the black mass just before it dissipated to nothing.

"Kasumi-chan!" cried Ryu as he took note of this last woman.

"Ryu-sama?" asked Kasumi as she ran over to the shinobi. "What are you doing here?"

"We'll get to that later," said Ryu as he held his hand up in the sky.

"Wow, this is insane..." said Serene as she looked all around her.

"I-a know," added the plumber known as Mario. "This is-a indeed in-a-sane!"

"So, I guess this makes twenty, huh?" asked Mikey with a shrug.

"Yep," replied Vyse. "Next question..."

The Air Pirate never got to finish his question, however, for then suddely a black mass opened up underneath their feet.

And before anybody could vocalize any kind of distress, all twenty people that were there were suddenly plummeting into the mass screaming as loudly as possible, the portal dissapearing as soon as everybody was sucked in.


	25. Chapter 24: Herald of a New Twenty

So, this will count as the final chapter of Twenty Warriors.

And it's decided. I will do a sequel to this, where more shit happens and everybody's happy. Of course, I won't get to it until I finish my Legend spinoff, but you know how things are. Here's the chapter that I hope you enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 24: Herald of a New Twenty

The rather large group of twenty then found themselves landing on hard ground in the middle of a swirl of colors, the colors rapidly changing orientation as they looked around them.

"Where the hell are we?" asked Raph as the group slowly began to stand.

"Beats me," said Vyse, jumping up into a standing position. "Where are we...?"

"This..." said Bowser, looking around.

"This looks like some alternate dimension of some sort," said Link as he stood up slowly.

"Is-a this where-a they took-a Crazy Hand?" asked Mario softly as he looked around him.

"Crazy Hand?" asked Aika, casting a confused glance at the plumber.

"Wait, let me guess," said Serene as she looked around her. "He's the guy behind all this."

"I guess," said Vyse with a shrug. "I'm still wondering about that woman, though..."

"Her?" asked Ryu, suddenly sensing a presence nearby. "I would not worry about her just yet. I sense somebody coming."

"Ah, well then," said a voice from very far away. "I was hoping to make my appearance more subtle, but that's apparently not the case."

From within the strange colors zoomed the familiar gloved hand, and as it twitched nervously everybody prepared their weapons quickly.

"Crazy Hand!" cried Bowser angrily. "Why are you doing this?"

"Why do you think?" asked the gloved hand as he twitched violently. "I've had enough of standing in the back, taking things as they come."

"I don't see your point," said Don, bo staff being held resolutely in his three-fingered hand. "Elaborate."

"Very well," said Crazy Hand. "When Master Hand and I opened our little Smash Brothers society or whatever, we had both agreed to get equal shares of the pie. We get that, but what happens then? He starts dwindling my influence, such that when we held our first tournament I was not even mentioned. So when he finally does mention me in the second tournament, I had enough. So whether he wants it too or not, I will get him, and I will be more well known than he is!"

"This is what this is all about?" asked Largo. "I don't even know most of what you've done, but you tricked all of us, just to get attention?"

"Precisely," said Crazy Hand. "Master Hand will learn what it is to ignore me later once I take this universe!"

"You're crazy!" cried Genis angrily.

"That's my name," replied the gloved hand.

"That's besides the point!" cried Leo. "One should not have to go this far for revenge!"

"I think it's far enough," said Crazy. "Those satanic rituals? All in the hope that I could seal Master away. This? Just another method of obliterating him."

"But why go to these lengths?" asked Fina. "You're even worse than your own brother!"

"Talk against me is useless," said Crazy Hand, twitching in an angrier fashion now. "Now give me those artifacts or I will destroy you!"

"Lina isn't giving you anything!" cried the orange-haired girl.

"And don't expect the rest of us to give you anything either!" cried Raine. "This is the end for you, Crazy Hand!"

"Ah is it?" asked the gloved hand. "Prove it."

The group looked to themselves before nodding, Genis raising his kendama in the air as the final battle commenced.

From underneath Crazy Hand came a barrage of stones that the glove managed to dodge in its twitching. However, in its twitching he did not manage to dodge Raph jumping up and plunging his sais into the gloved hand.

This was swiftly followed as Vyse jumped into the air, slashing into the glove with his cutlasses as Leo leapt on his back, Fina's magic working its way around his katana. When the blow connected with the gloved hand, a large clump of moon-based energy shattered into the gloved hand. Link followed up quickly with another attack from the Master Sword, and only then was Crazy Hand sent backwards.

He barely had time to recover before the two human ninjas descended on him like a blur, and before he knew it the hand was feeling pain like never before as Kasumi's tanto and Ryu's katana made painful intrusions on his figure. When this was done, Largo and Serene bore down on him with their axe and scythe, sending the glove plummeting to the floor. Before the glove could get up, the Koopa King had slammed onto him, and Bower jumped off of the glove for Donatello and Michelangelo to land a barrage of blows on the glove. This cycle was only broken when two bands of light surrounded the glove, but even then Crazy felt a great pain in his body before light exploded from his being. Just as he rose, he found himself getting nicked by a card before a boomerang and an arrow hit him at the same time. This was amplified all the more so by a fireball from Mario that was sent in his direction, and he barely had time to get his bearings before he found himself get stuck to the ground by Enrique's rapier.

This was followed by more slashes from Ryu and Kasumi, and then the Valuan Prince let him go. Mario kicked the glove into the air, Link slashed him farther away and the gloved hand was slammed to the ground with a jump kick from Leonardo. Everybody that had taken part in the fight then jumped up, and within a few seconds they had all dealt a finishing blow to the glvoe, Crazy Hand having gone down with almost no fight at all.

"That was it?" asked Vyse as he looked at the destroyed Crazy Hand. "I hate to be negative, but that was actually pretty..."

"Well, he barely held his own against eight people," said Bowser as he shook his head vigorously. "I figured he'd get owned by twenty, but not this badly..."

"W... why...?" asked Crazy Hand, twitching just before he fell still.

There was a great silence as people saw the glove stop moving before them, everybody pondering on what had happened in their lives.

"Is... is that it?" asked Aika incredulously. "We did all that, for this?"

"Oh, you think it started with Crazy Hand, huh?" said a female voice.

Everybody turned in the direction of the voice, Vyse wearing a frown as he saw who it was.

"You!" cried the Blue Rogue angrily. "You were the one behind this mess, weren't you?"

"Ah, so you survived..." said the female figure as she approached, black hair rolling down her shoulders as he gave the pirate a sultry glance. "I was hoping that rubble killed you..."

"So you're the one who killed his friends!" cried Serene, grabbing her scythe. "I won't forgive you!"

"Serene, wait!" warned Leo, setting a firm hand on the arc's shoulder. "Who are you, and what do you want with us?"

"I want the ultimate power," said the lady with a sultry tone in her voice. "And you can call me Carmen."

"Ultimate power?" asked Link.

"Of course," said the lady with a smirk. "Don't tell me I didn't seek those artifacts for no reason."

"Those artifacts should not be used in the wrong hands!" cried Snake angrily.

"And you think my hands are bad?" asked Carmen as she floated down to the level of the warriors. "I must say, I reject your notion that I am the one who is wrong here."

"Well, you're intending to use those things for yourself, and--" Fina pointed out.

"Silence!" roared the woman angrily before glaring at them. "I'll show you who is the selfish one here!"

"We'll prove you wrong!" replied Serene angrily before charging at the woman.

"Serene, wait!" cried Vyse.

But by then, it was too late, for Serene had jumped up, preparing to land a scythe blow on Carmen. However, the woman quite quickly grabbed the neck of the weapon and quickly spun it around her, black hair flying around her as she sent Serene flying away with such force that it was through sheer luck that she landed on her feet. Ryu and Kasumi then both went for the woman, but when Kasumi landed a tanto blow Carmen held her hand out and erected a temporary barrier around her that blocked the blow and sent the knife ricocheting into Ryu's left arm, the blood flying out quickly.

Wasting no time, the evil lady quickly gathered a strange kind of energy around her, and with this she created a whip of pure energy that suddenly cracked into the group, the whip hitting almost everybody there. It inflicted such excruciating pain on them that they were barely able to counter. Vyse stood, shocked at what was going on around him as he found he was the only one spared the whip's judgement.

After several minutes of eerybody being whipped, the female finally stopped the assault, the whip dissolving into air as the group laid down on the ground, crying and moaning in pain, most of them barely able to stand up after the onslaught. Vyse was the only one who had been spared Carmen's treatment, and he found himself getting teary-eyed at the sight around him. Before he could comment, Carmen shot her hand out, and the artifacts that she had yet to find came levitating to her

"Why...?" asked Vyse.

"Because I do whatever it takes to earn the power!" said the female.

"That's not what I meant!" cried Vyse. "Why didn't you do that to me, too?"

"Why didn't I?" asked Carmen, black eyes gleaming with a strange kind of zeal. "You were the only one who was not underestimating me."

"But nobody else said they could beat you!" said the air pirate angrily.

"It can be assumed from the exchange that they felt I could," said Carmen. "Now, since you didn't underestimate me, I'll give you this proposal; from the time I say 'go', you'll have twenty seconds to select up to two people to save by picking up their arms and turning to me. Once you select your two people, I'll warp you out of here, and you'll be spared my wrath. How does that sound to you?"

"What?" asked Vyse. "You expect me to choose?"

"Of course!" said Carmen. "Go."

Vyse would have contested with this decision if not for the fact that Carmen had said go. Slapping his hands to his sides in defeat, he looked around frantically, running over to Aika the first chance he got and picking up her arm.

"That's one," said Carmen. "You have fifteen seconds to find your other person. And if you cheat, the deal's off."

Vyse looked around frantically, Aika weakly moaning behind him as he looked around frantically, a drop of sweat rolling down his brow as he tried to figure out who to save next.

"Ten seconds," said Carmen suddenly, jolting Vyse out of his careful thinking. "Nine. Eight."

Vyse frantically looked around, his eyes suddenly falling on somebody.

"Seven. Six. Five. Four."

The air pirate trudged over to the spot that he saw his friend on, being careful not to drop Aika's arm as he sped his way over there.

"Three."

The air pirate, desperate, lost himself in the pressure, and picked up the hand of the person next to him, only to discover that he had picked up Ryu's arm. Mortified at his error, Vyse turned to Carmen, wanting to bargain with her to change her mind.

"And that's two," said Carmen, holding her hand out in front of her. "Farewell, good sir."

And with that, Vyse, Aika, and Ryu were teleported out of the dimension in a flash of light, one so bright that the people that were writhing on the floor slowly turned their heads to see the commotion.

"And now, that leaves me with the rest of you," said the female condescendingly, the artifacts surrounding her, a wicked smile appearing on her face as a great beam of light came up from the 'ground' of the dimension.

When the light dimmed, one was able to make out the figure of the most beautiful woman a person had ever seen, the woman almost naked as she gazed on Carmen with hooded gray eyes. Her long silver hair flowed around her like it was in a wind, and when she looked at Carmen she seemed almost to be in a trance.

"What is it you wish...?" asked the woman simply with a slightly subdued voice.

"I wish, to have all the powers of the universe!" cried the woman ecstatically, voice ringing out in the alternate dimension.

"It shall be granted..." replied the goddess of wishes in a subdued tone of voice.

* * *

In the Smash Mansion things had calmed down quite a bit ever since the dissapearance of the select few that were sucked in by the black sphere. However, there was still quite a bit of tension within the mansion as to whether something else would happen.

It was with this mindset that Princess Peach Toadstool was walking down the hallways in the middle of the night, slowly walking around so as not to wake anybody up. The princess had jolted up in the middle of the night after her stomach began growling loudly. She quietly stepped out of the room, making sure not to wake up her roomate Samus, as she snuck to the kitchen to prepare herself a little snack.

As she walked along and looked out the window, she suddenly saw what looked to be a black sphere racing towards the mansion. She gasped lightly, and ran back the way she came, avoiding her stomach.

However, before she could even open the door to her dorm to warn her roomate, she suddenly felt a great force collide with the mansion, breaking it down the middle of the mansion so that a hole was left that was large enough for people to be sucked into. As she suddenly felt a great force pull on her, she saw the people in the dorms past hers get sucked into the black object. She could not count them as they went by too quickly, but as she held on to the doorknob a great fear perpetrated her being.

And then, she let out a scream as she felt her grip loosen on the doorknob, and then she was knocked out cold as she too was sucked into the black object.

* * *

Vyse found himself kneeling in the middle of a vast mountain range, holding on fast to Aika and Ryu as he looked around to see valleys and mountains from his vantage point on the top of the peak.

As soon as he saw this, the tears began flowing down his eye to the point that he had to take off his eyepatch just so that his righ eye would be functional. As he loked around, he wondered why he had not been able to bargain for Fina's life as well.

As he looked around, a wave of negative emotions flooded his mind, and then he got down on his knees, finally letting go of Ryu and Aika as he clutched his head in his arms, trying not to think of what was happening around him.

He suddenly shut his eyes tight, face pointed to the heavens as he let out a cry of anguish at how hopeless the situation seemed.

There was no hope. He had survived, for what? To be stranded in a place where they would die and the remaining seventeen warriors would be in mortal danger?

As he thought of this, Vyse fell forward, hitting his forehead on a rock and suddenly losing consciousness as the last of his tears flowed down his cheeks.

* * *

A/N: And that's the end. Stick around for the sequel, which will be up as soon as I can manage!

-Herr Wozzeck


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